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Program Highlights for year 2014

Probing spin and charge on the nanoscale

We are building a scanning probe microscope to study spin and charge on the nanoscale. The magnetic sensing element is a nitrogen-vacancy center (NV) in diamond, which should afford single electron spin sensitivity with 10 nm spatial resolution.

Schematic of diamond-based scanning probe magnetometer

Partnering with Wisconsin Industry

The industrial consortium coordinated by the Wisconsin MRSEC has grown to 20 to 25 members. The Wisconsin MRSEC has now partnered with the University of Wisconsin business school to develop strategies to expand further our impact on Wisconsin and regional industry.

Cameca LEAP Atom Probe at UW Madison

The wide range of instrumentation within the University of Wisconsin MRSEC Shared Instrumentation Facilities (UW-MRSEC SIF) can now be accessed by academic and industry users around the nation via the Materials Research Facilities Network (MFRN.org).   A Significant new addition over the past year is a Cameca LEAP 3000 Si ATOM Probe.

Formation of Large Area Aligned Arrays of Semiconducting Carbon Nanotubes

Creating aligned arrays of high purity (>99.9%) semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (s-SWCNTs) over a large area has been a significant challenge in materials synthesis.

"Caged" Liquid Crystal Droplets

General Overview: Researchers at the Wisconsin MRSEC are working to develop sensors that can detect toxic substances near a single cell by exploiting the unique properties of liquid crystals (LC).  LCs are materials that combine physical properties of both l

Synthesis of Complex Semiconductors from Atoms That Don't Want to Mix

General Overview:  The Wisconsin MRSEC is investigating innovative methods to incorporate a greatly expanded diversity of atom types into semiconductors, thus yielding materials with a new range of electronic properties.

High School Students Synthesize Graphene by Chemical Vapor Deposition

Members of the UW MRSEC Interdisciplinary Education Group (IEG) collaborated with MRSEC researchers to develop a laboratory method that enables students to synthesize research quality graphene by CVD.  The method uses safe, inexpensive equipment and reagents so the synthesis can be performed in a high school classroom.  To date, the IEG has led the activity with six groups of middle and high sc

Simulations of Active Nematics

Simulations of a model for microtubule(MT)-based active nematics capture experimentally observed defect dynamics. The image on the right shows three sequential images from experimental system in which +½ and -½ defects are created through a bending stability and subsequently separate.

Defect Dynamics in 2D Active Nematic Liquid Crystals

While conventional materials are assembled from inanimate building blocks, we are exploring the behavior of soft materials in which the constituent components consume energy and spontaneously coordinate their microscopic behavior and form novel materials such as active gels, crawling emulsion droplets, and living liquid crystals.

Graphene Electronic Superhighways

Electrons in epitaxial graphene nanoribbons travel unimpeded at high speed for large distances, so that they are ideally suited for graphene electronics.

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