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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.).
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].
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.
