Highlights

The ability to localize mobile charges in solids is essential for understanding a range of correlated electron transport phenomena. Yet, existing approaches rely on weak interaction potentials, limiting their applicability to low-temperature conditions. Park, Liu and Vaikuntanathan addressed this challenge by creating ion-gated bilayer transistors based on hybrid bilayer crystals, composed of a monolayer perylene diimide molecular crystal stacked on a monolayer of molybdenum disulfide.

A 3-way collaboration between the de Pablo, Rowan and Jaeger groups in IRG 1 developed a novel class of suspensions with tunable memory. The particles are made from liquid crystalline elastomers (LCEs) and exhibit anisotropic elasticity and shape-shifting characteristics. In these suspensions small changes in temperature can be used to induce large changes in material stiffness and transform the particle shape, thereby providing access to a wide range of different flow behaviors. In particular, ajammed, non-flowing state can be escaped by activating the shape memory behavior if the LCE particle.

The MRSEC team at Ohio State University developed and applied a fully automated algorithm to screen all 1,649 known magnetically ordered materials, identifying 387 (~23%) as candidates guaranteed to host topological magnons when a magnetic field, electric field, or strain is applied — a >30× expansion of the known candidate pool.

Quantum sensing enables spatially localized, broadband detection of spin dynamics and magnon transport in antiferromagnets, addressing a key limitation of conventional magnetic resonance techniques.

Strain engineering in epitaxial LaCoO3 thin films enables direct control of crystal symmetry and spin state population, revealing a clear pathway from lattice distortion to emergent magnetism in correlated oxides.

Previously, UC Santa Barbara MRSEC researchers demonstrated that the introduction of charge to typically immiscible polymer blends can induce a microphase separation. Based on that work, the Random Phase Approximation (RPA) can be used with 13 input parameters to determine if a blend is microphase separated or homogeneous.

Conjugated polyelectrolytes can be used to form biosensors and bioelectronic devices. Controlling the optoelectronic properties of conjugated polyelectrolytes typically requires extensive synthetic modification.

Compensated ferrimagnets combine the advantages of ferromagnets and antiferromagnets: near-zero net magnetization reduces stray fields and enables fast, stable operation, while large exchange splitting allows a finite anomalous Hall effect (AHE) for electrical readout. In crystalline kagomé materials, nontrivial band structure and Berry curvature further enable strong intrinsic AHE, making them attractive for spintronic applications.

Controlling defects in wide‑bandgap nanomaterials is central to building scalable quantum systems. In this work, we demonstrated optically active and spin-bearing Yb3+ defects in CeO2 nanocrystals, establishing quantitative benchmarks for excited‑state optical lifetimes, spin‑lattice relaxation (T1), and spin coherence (Tm).

The Waltham High School Bilingual Chemistry Field Trip marked the fifth year of this MRSEC-supported outreach program and expanded its scope through the inclusion of AP Chemistry students and a new collaboration with the MEL Community Foundation. This year, 30 students from SEI and AP Chemistry courses, who had been engaged in bilingual chemistry learning throughout the academic year, visited Brandeis University for a culminating field trip featuring lab tours, hands-on chemistry experiments, and exposure to the research landscape in chemistry and materials science.