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Program Highlights for year 2013

New imaging tool for spin scientists and engineers

A new technique for imaging spin properties at the nanoscale, Scanned Spin‐Precession Microscopy, works by incorporating a scannable micromagnetic tip in conjunction with any of a variety of established spin detection tools—electrical or opti

Latin School for Boys Visits PCCM

On March 13, 2013, students from Philadelphia's Latin School visited the Princeton Center for Complex Materials. The 9th and 10th graders came to PCCM from the largely African American all boys charter school in Philadelphia. Their teacher, Christine Galib, a Princeton University alum, has been teaching her students about nanotechnology. She saw a talk by PCCM's

Microfluidics for block polymer shells

We utilized microfluidic methods to investigate the role of geometric structures, e.g. thin spherical block copolymer shells, in the microphase separation in block copolymer thin films. The shells are comprised of the triblock copolymer styrene-isoprene-styrene (SIS). For

ATP metabolism and its impact on biofilms

Biofilms are soft, largely organic, highly heterogeneous, self-generated, self-repairing thin films comprised of macromolecules, inorganic ions, and living matter. These films corrode petroleum pipelines and storage tanks, increase drag on shipping vessels, and account for the majority of hospital-treated infections.

Nano Mini-Exhibit

In 2012, Princeton University’s NSF-funded research center Princeton Center for Complex Materials (PCCM) and its partners the Princeton Public Library and  the New Jersey State Museum were awarded the NSF funded NISEnet Nano! Mini-Exhibit. Nano! is a new engaging exhibition for family

Liquid crystal order in the kagome lattice

The kagome lattice is an outstanding example of a frustrated magnet, a system in which the magnetic moments cannot satisfactorily align to minimize the energy. Its ground-state configuration has been a long-standing puzzle. Recent debate has focused on the relative stability of a valence bond-crystal, and an isotropic

Electron-blocking and Hole-blocking Wide-gap Heterojunctions to Crystalline Silicon

Solid-state devices rely on the control of the flow of electrons and holes at the interface (“heterojunction”) formed between different semiconductors. Silicon is the workhorse of the semiconductor industry. However, until now, creating a heterojunction between Si and other materials with a larger energy gap has been an intractable

High Sensitivity EPR with Superconducting Microresonators

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) is commonly used to manipulate and measure the magnetic moments (or spins) of electrons.  IRG-D researchers at the Princeton Center for Complex Materials (PCCM) have demonstrated a 100 fold improvement in sensitivity to the electrons’ spins by combining long-coherence donor electrons in isotopically

Striving for Perfect Order in Shear-Aligned Block Copolymer Films

Block copolymer thin films are effective templates for fabricating large arrays of nanoscopic objects; for example, polymers which self-assemble into cylinders lying in the plane of the film yield striped patterns, which can be replicated in metal to yield nanowire grids which effectively polarize the short-wavelength

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