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Program Highlights

Shewanella oneidensis as a Living Electrode for Controlled Radical Polymerization

Researchers at the University of Texas - Austin find that manipulating biological electron transport pathways may be a general strategy for allowing bacteria to produce or communicate with synthetic materials.

Routing Valley Excitons with a Metasurface

Researchers at the University of Texas - Austin have discovered a new method to separate valley index using a designed metasurface. Excitons that carry different valley index are routed toward different directions in real space and momentum space, and photons emitted go to different directions according to their helicity.

Proto-IRG: Spin Textures in Chiral Magnetic Materials

Experimental evidence in MBE-grown FeGe thin films for “chiral bobbers”, topological spin texture that exist near an interface. Theoretical modeling  predicts stable chiral bobbers in materials with both bulk and interfacial DMI. Lorentz TEM imaging of skyrmions in FeGe thinned crystals

Physics of Emergent Materials Workshop (POEM)

The CEM Internal Advisory Council, a grassroots committee of students and postdoctoral researchers, created POEM to inform the Center’s direction and improve the educational and research experiences of CEM students. 

Nanoparticles For Delivery of DNA Therapeutics

Many advanced drugs acting in cells are made of DNA fragments.  Since DNA is biologically active and destroyed if not recognized, a major challenge for this kind of medicine is getting the DNA into selected target cells.  SMRC researchers have found that soap-like molecules that form nanometer-size spherical particles in water and that have a DNA-like component as part of their molecular structure can act as effective carriers of therapeutic DNA for cancer treatment.

A Double Helix of Bent Molecular Dimers

Simple bent molecules like CB7CB perform some seemingly miraculous tricks when packed together to make a liquid. Because the molecular ends and middles attract each other, the molecules spontaneously knit themselves together into double stranded chains many units long, like the twisted rope in the graphic. Understanding such self-assembly is key to  creating new applications for soft materials like liquid crystals and polymers.

A Double Helix of Nucleic Acid Monomers

The DNA double helix is a universally familiar pairing of two polymer chains in water, joined into a duplex by the selective binding of side group bases, the sequence of which contains and transmits genetic information.

Strong Coupling of a Superradiant Spin Ensemble

The Princeton MRSEC has leveraged the low disorder and long coherence of states in a pristine silicon crystal to experimentally realize the Tavis-Cummings model, a fundamental model in quantum optics.

Majorana Spin Diagnostics

The Princeton MRSEC has detected a unique quantum property of an elusive particle, the Majorana fermion that is notable for behaving simultaneously like matter and antimatter. Using enhanced scanning tunneling microscopy techniques, the team captured signals from the Majorana particle at both ends of an atomically thin iron wire stretched on the surface of a crystal of lead.

International Conference of the African Materials Research Society

The Northwestern University MRSEC supports a diverse suite of international collaborations and outreach activities. For example, the Center provided support for 10 students and postdoctoral research associates to attend the 9th International Conference of the African Materials Research Society (AMRS) on December 11-14, 2017 in Gaborone, Botswana.

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