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 air-in-oil-in-water emulsions, microfluidic devices with two consecutive flow-focusing junctions were used to generate air bubble-containing droplets of a solution of the SIS triblock

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. The mapping between microbial physiology and the material properties of biofilms is complex, of considerable economic importance, and largely uncharted. To date, physiology-biofilm

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 audiences about nanoscale science, technology, and engineering. The Nano! Mini-Exhibit is open to the public at the Princeton Public Library for one year.  1000’s have already enjoyed the exhibit. The exhibit allows the public to

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 spin-liquid (where quantum fluctuations cause all ordering to disappear). Using numerical techniques, we have shown [1] that there is an intermediate competing

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 problem for the most part, because of the lack of a lattice match between Si and crystalline wide-gap materials. In this seed, Sturm, Kahn,  Schwartz and Loo report two materials that do

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 enriched silicon with superconducting Nb microresonators.1  The PCCM researchers have previously shown that these donor impurities, each binding one electron, exhibit exceptionally

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 ultraviolet light used in today’s advanced production photolithography.   But other applications demand more perfect order of the striped-pattern template:  perfectly straight and unbroken wires. 

Processed NW network