In September 2014, CRISP hosted a public lecture to school children and their parents entitled “How Things Work: The Nano of Computers” by Prof.
By precisely controlling the surface composition of thin oxide films, films can be switched from a metal to an insulator. Atomic-scale control of the surface is achieved using molecular beams of atoms (the molecular beam epitaxy growth method).
New property of electrons may lead to novel electronic devices
Topological insulators (TIs) are a novel class of quantum materials characterized by an insulating bulk and metallic conducting states at the surface. This metallic behavior however, can be changed by applying a magnetic field or, equivalently, by coupling the TI to a ferromagnetic material.
The thermal properties of oxides are of interest for a number of important applications, including thermoelectrics, thermal barrier coatings, memristors, and fuel cells. MIT MRSEC researchers demonstrated, for the first time, the controllable impact of oxygen defects on the thermal conductivity of a reducible oxide.