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Program Highlights

Solid State Lighting: Energy Savings and New Architecture

To a packed audience of over 200 students and local residents, the UCSB MRL supported a public lecture on the subject of solid state lighting, emphasizing the promise of a much cleaner, more efficient, and longer-lasting lighting source. Santa Barbara architect Barry Winick presented the unusual ways that compact, efficient sources of light can be used in commercial (retail) architecture.

A New and Safe 'X-Ray' Vision

UCSB MRL researchers have recently developed a new way of seeing beneath clothing and other materials using a THz imaging system that employs a photoconductive switch for illumination and a zero-biased, Schottky diode for detection.

Graphitic Carbon Produced at Very Low Temperatures During the Synthesis of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles

Graphitic carbon - structural forms of the element that are constructed exclusively from carbon atoms having trigonal planar coordination - is ordinarily produced under drastic physical and conditions, typically at temperatures in excess of 500° C. Columbia MRSEC scientists have uncovered a process by which this form of matter can assemble at temperatures as low as 110° C.

Expansion of the McNair CITIES Program

Expansion of the McNair CITIES ProgramThe MRSEC developed a new program to help enhance the curriculum of NYC high schools called the Ron McNair Curriculum Integration To Interactively Engage Students (CITIES) Program. The goals of the program are to increase student engagement and to motivate students to enjoy learning and to educate the public.

Perfectly Hydrophobic Surfaces

"Perfectly hydrophobic" surfaces have been developed by McCarthy and are being applied to low friction motion and lubrication McCarthy and Crosby.

Polymer Nanocomposite Mechanical Properties

Composites of polymers and inorganic nanoparticles offer tremendous promise for the optimization of mechanical properties.

Myelin Figures-- the Instability of Soap

Myelin figures are long thin cylindrical structures that grow when water is added to the concentrated lamellar phase of certain surfactants such as soap.

Spin-Blockade in a Colloidal CdSe Quantum Dot Solid

A University of Chicago MRSEC team led by Philippe Guyot-Sionnest and Woowon Kang have been investigating the transport properties of colloidal quantum dots under magnetic field [1].

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