The objective of this Seed is to understand cooperative electronic, optical and electromagnetic phenomena emerging from the interactions of nanoscale building blocks. Recent work encompasses synthesis of nanoparticles (figure right) and nanowires, and the investigation of how nanocrystals can drive geometrical rearrangement in polymersome micelles (figure right).
Pioneering experiments reported [upper left] the ability of ferroelectric domain orientation to switch surface chemistry on and off, finding unambiguous evidence that the polarity of a ferroelectric surface can have a strong impact on the energetics of physisorption.
We have developed analytic methods that establish molecular constraints to photochemical efficiency in the engineering and construction of molecular photochemical materials and devices useful to addressing the global energy challenge. The absence, to-date, of analytic procedures has seriously handicapped progress in the development of photochemical devices.
We have designed specialized protein molecules that organize around carbon nanotubes into an atomistically-predefined pattern. Targeted design of such self-organization is a powerful tool for engineering at the nano scale. For example, we have shown that our protein/nanotube hybrid can be used to generate a regularly-spaced array of gold nano-particle.
Design & engineering of modern devices increasingly requires complex nano-
An isostatic lattice is one at the threshold of mechanical stability. The square and kagome lattices (see Figure 1a-b) in two dimensions are examples of isostatic lattices. A 2D kagome lattice of N sites has of order N1/2 zero-energy bulk modes under periodic boundary conditions.
Background: The JHU MRSEC conducts extensive K-12 educational outreach programs aimed at promoting interest in and awareness of the importance of modern materials
Background: A bar magnet has two poles, denoted as +1 and -1 magnetic charges. Patterned structures consist of many magnets (Fig. 1), where the square array (Fig. 1a) does not, whereas the honeycomb (Fig. 1b) has, net magnetic charges (or magnetic monopoles). Under a magnetic field these local magnetic monopoles will move (Fig. 1c).
Background: The tetrahedral coordination of Fe surrounded by 4 Se(Te) atoms is of crucial importance for the new high TC Fe pnictides superconductors with lattice parameters c and a. To
