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Program Highlights

Spin–orbit exciton–induced phonon chirality in a quantum magnet

The interplay of charge, spin, lattice, and orbital degrees of freedom in correlated materials often leads to rich and exotic properties. Recent studies have brought new perspectives to bosonic collective excitations in correlated materials. MRSEC researchers with UT Austin report phonon properties resulting from a combination of strong spin–orbit coupling, large crystal field splitting, and trigonal distortion in CTO.

Crowding Alters Secondary Structure in F-actin Bundles

The cytoskeletal component actin plays a crucial role in various cellular functions, including cell shape regulation and intracellular transport, by forming filaments and networks. Despite the current understanding of actin's morphological versatility, the impact of crowded environments—specifically how actin filaments organize into bundles and how this organization changes the protein secondary structure—remains under-explored. Here, we used two-dimensional infrared (2D IR) spectroscopy and structure based spectral calculations to map out structural changes of actin filaments under two degrees of crowding and bundling.

Internal Advisory Council: Promoting the Student Perspective

The CEM Student Internal Advisory Council advises CEM in the interests of students and postdocs and organizes technical and team-building events. 

Ultrafast Spin Polarized Electron Dynamics of Magnetic Insulator Yttrium Iron Garnet

Understanding the ultrafast dynamics of charge/spin transitions in magnetic insulators (MI) is crucial for developing new materials interfaces for spin-electronics and quantum information science applications. Supported by CEM, the groups of Yang and Baker reported a femtosecond extreme UV (XUV) spectroscopy of yttrium iron garnet (Y3Fe5O12, YIG), one of the important MI garnets for the NM/MI interfaces in this IRG.

Regional Abacus Bee Math Competition

Princeton co-hosted an inaugural NJ Regional Abacus Bee Math Competition in October 2023 that encourages blind and low vision students to practice their math skills.

Control of Solution Phase Behavior through Block−Random Copolymer Sequence

Princeton researchers alter a sequence of random copolymers and provide the first experimental observations of thermoreversible crew-cut micelles, and thermotropic micro- and macrophase separation in a nonaqueous polymer solution.

Novel 2D chemistry and superconducting quantum engineering

MRSEC researchers from Princeton University have discovered a surprising on-chip process for growing ultrathin superconductors on ultrathin layers of transitionmetal dichalcogenides (TMD).

Engineering exceptional transport in van der Waals superatomic semiconductors

The PIs of IRG2 have substantially refined synthetic control over the synthesis of superatoms and their assemblies into macroscopic single crystals. They are now leveraging this control to engineer new, exceptional semiconductor transport properties not seen in any other material.

Programming magnetic domains in ferrimagnetic MnSb2Te4

Mn(Bi, Sb)2Te4, a family of MTMs with highly tunable properties, is an ideal playground for studying the interplay of band topology with magnetism. While previous work has focused on uniform ordered phases, here we ask: How can we control the electronic properties of Mn(Bi, Sb)2Te4 using the mesoscale structure of magnetism?

Experimenta con PREM

Experimenta con PREM is a two-week hands-on research program for high school students run annually at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) Humacao & Cayey campuses. It remains a core program for the UPR-Penn PREM program with a history of attracting talented and motivated high school students to materials research; since its inception in 2005, 100% of students have graduated from high school and 78% pursue STEM after.

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