Highlights

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) leads a new $7 million research collaboration involving six universities to develop a new generation of electronic devices in partnership with an industry consortium.

Roughness insensitive boundary magnetization is a new concept discovered by Nebraska MRSEC researchers. It is a unique feature of magnetoelectric antiferromagnets, i.e. materials in which the application of electric field induces a net magnetic moment. An important property of the boundary magnetization is that it can be switched between two states by applying an electrical voltage.

The University of Nebraska held its fifth Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physical Sciences on October 24-26, 2013 under the scientific theme “Nano Trek.”

The Nebraska MRSEC Professor/Student Pairs Program brings in a professor and a student from non-research intensive four-year institutions to conduct research with Nebraska MRSEC scientists. The goal is to offer a research experience which benefits both the participants and the MRSEC projects.

Graphene is a two-dimensional material that consists of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice. Graphene has a very high electronic conductivity that could be tuned by external electric field.

The LRSM topological insulator (TI) seed is investigating how the connectivity of electronic bands in momentum space can be used to topologically classify insulators and semimetals. The theory of topological band structures has been generalized beyond TIs to include topological semimetals, including Weyl semimetals, Dirac semimetals and other symmetry protected topological states.

‘Living Smectics’ are being studied by a Physics PhD student, Stephanie Majkut, with Andrea Liu helping in theory.

The LRSM has organized a free, four week summer program for local high school students interested in materials science and engineering since 1993. Typically 24-28 students, usually juniors but occasionally well qualified sophomores, are accepted. Students are drawn from schools in the Delaware Valley within easy commuting distance of the LRSM. The program consists of lectures on materials, a computer lab, experimental labs, and field trips to both industrial and Penn facilities.

This year, we collaborated with Penn’s Center for Technology Transfer (CTT) on a discussion panel "How to Start a Materials-based Company." CTT is in charge of transferring inventions and innovative knowledge to outside organizations for the benefit of society. The panel, geared mainly towards graduate students, focused on starting a materials science based company. Three CEOs from the Delaware Valley discussed their startup experience, and two experts, who assist new companies, provided information on available resources for entrepreneurs.