Highlights

In a recent publication in Nature, we reported bulk metallic glass (BMG) matrix composites exhibiting >10% tensile ductility and Fracture Toughness comparable to or exceeding the toughest metals known [1]. These high performance composites demonstrate the potential of metallic glass as revolutionary structural metals. The BMG matrix composites contain elastically soft dendrites comprised of Ti-Zr-Nb embedded in a glassy matrix. Toughening and ductility are achieved by a mechanism similar to the

Producing high quality thin films of controlled thickness is a critical step for the development of ferroelectric nanophotonic devices. Developed recently, the process referred to as layer transfer has been shown to be very promising: ions are implanted in a plan parallel to the interface of a bilayer system that is then heated. The high temperature induces nucleation and propagation of cracks in the weakened plan of the specimen, resulting after coalescence in a full splitting of the upper part of the original sample (Fig. (a)).

Single-crystal organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) are ideal device structures for studying fundamental science associated with charge transport in organic materials and have demonstrated outstanding electrical characteristics. However, it remains a technical challenge to integrate single-crystal devices into practical electronic applications. A key difficulty is that organic single-crystal devices are usually fabricated one device at a time through manual selection and placing individual crystals. To overcome this difficulty, Bao et al.

Objective: To develop novel microfluidic flow cells that allow trapping of single DNA molecules and studies of the binding of sequence-specific probes to the trapped DNA.

The quest for economical devices with faster speeds, lighter weights, and higher feature density drives demand for new fabrication tools that create ever more complex patt

Infection by adenovirus is initiated when Knobs (globular protein domains) on the virus periphery bind to a CAR (Coxsackie-Adenovirus Receptor) membrane protein of the host cell.

The University of Maryland (UMD) MRSEC joined the NISE Network in the nation-wide effort to bring nanoscience to communities across the country during the week of March 29 - April 6, 2008.

The coupling of the magnetic and ferroelectric order in multiferroics produces new excitations of mixed magnetic (magnons) and lattice (phonons) character ; electro-magnons. The investigation of these novel excitations as has revealed that they are activated only through symmetric Heisenberg exchange, even in systems in which the static polarization arises from the relativistic antisymmetric exchange.

Multiferroic Y(Lu)MnO3 undergoes an isostructural transition at the magnetic Neel transition, producing giant atomic displacement for every atom in the unit cell. It appears that this happens without either soft-mode degrees of freedom or orbital degrees of freedom. This extremely large magneto-elastic coupling is unprecedented - larger by two orders of magnitude than in any magnetic materials.