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Program Highlights for year 2008

Understanding Magnetic "Exchange Pinning"

Magnetic storage of digital data is now possible at densities approaching 1 Terabit per square inch at a cost of only about a tenth of a cent per Megabit. To a large extent, the breathtaking progress in this area of technology is sustained by discovery of bits.

PCCM Helps Integrate Materials Science into NJ School Curricula

In 2004, PCCM launched a partnership with ASM to run a week-long "Materials Camp" for high school teachers. Over the past four years, over 120 teachers have been trained to teach materials science in local schools. In follow-up evaluations and refresher sessions, teachers report in using this knowledge in their classrooms.

Dynamic Surface-Emitting Fiber Lasers

Members of of IRG-I have recently introduced a new concept in fiber lasers. Until now, emission from fiber lasers originated solely from the fiber ends in the axial direction with a spot size dictated by the core radius.

Dual Function Drug-Release Coating Mimics Hummingbird Wings

Functionally active thin film coatings find many important uses in the biomedical field as sensors and drug delivery systems. Members of IRG-II have created a new multilayer coating that can serve both functions.

GEMSEC Partnership with a Community College for Curriculum Development

To create a nationally replicable model of a sustainable and continuously up-gradable hands-on undergraduate teaching laboratory of scanning probe methods, GEMSEC is working with researchers from the UW's Center for Nanotechnology, educators from North Seattle Community College, representatives from a scanning probe microscopy manufacturer, and a nanotechnology SPM distributor.

Multi-faceted Education and Partnerships at GEMSEC

With a particular focus on engaging and including Native Americans in its entire range of programs, GEMSEC is weaving a fabric of education offerings to seamlessly support and complement its research thrusts.

Self-Assembly of Soft Materials: A Multiscale Computational Approach

Surfactant adsorption at solid-liquid interfaces is important in many industrial processes, including corrosion inhibition, dispersion stabilization, and lubrication. Furthermore, surfactant adsorption may provide novel and exciting means to guide soft materials to self-assemble into a myriad of tailored shapes.

Direct-Transfer Patterning on Three- Dimensional Surfaces

While many approaches have been developed over the years to transfer patterns onto flat surfaces, faithfully transferring patterns onto curves substrates remains a major obstacle to the development of large-area electronics. Recently, PCCM researchers have successfully patterned domed polyester substrates with metal stripes (gold, silver, etc.).

Doping Affects Electronic Transport Through Molecular Junctions

Electronic transport through a junction formed between silicon (Si), a monolayer of alkyl chains (C14H29) self-assembled on Si, and a metal (M) is dominated by thermionic emission above the semiconductor barrier and tunneling through the insulating molecular layer [1].

Breaking the Mold to Produce Submicron Polymeric Gratings with Large Areas

PCCM researchers have discovered a new method for making gratings: by prying apart two rigid plates that sandwich a thin, glassy polymeric film. The process fractures the film into complementary sets of ridges on each plate, with the ridges on one corresponding to the valleys on the other.

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