PREM- Emergent Interface Materials

Clark Atlanta University (CAU), a research intensive university and Spelman College (SC) are two of the four institutions that comprise the Atlanta University Center (AUC), the nation’s oldest and largest consortium of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Both institutions comprised a combined enrollment of over 6,500 students, over 95 % of whom are African Americans, a large portion of whom are first-generation college students.

The proposed Partnership for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) between these two AUC schools and the Platform for the Accelerated Realization, Analysis, and Discovery of Interface Materials (PARADIM), a National Science Foundation-funded Materials Innovation Platform at Cornell University, will promote and enhance the participation and advance degree attainment of over 10 Ph.D. and over 40 B.S. students, most of whom will be from underrepresented minority groups. Students will develop expertise in the design and creation of new interface materials - materials that do not exist in nature - with unprecedented properties for the next generation of electronic, magnetoelectronic and optoelectronic devices, while acquiring a strong set of multidisciplinary skills in fundamental research.

The participating students will conduct research at the three academic institutions and will be mentored by faculty from several disciplines. This PREM project will allow CAU and Spelman College to significantly accelerate their emergence in materials research and develop a long-lasting collaborative partnership with PARADIM. The research results under the CAU-SC-PARADIM PREM will be disseminated in peer-reviewed journals and conferences, and to the public at large via a dedicated web portal.

A synergistic interdisciplinary research approach to the advancement of the basic understanding of oxide-oxide, oxide-covalent organic frameworks, and oxide-polymer interfaces that is essental for the design and creation of new interface materials with unprecedented properties for the next generation of electronic, magnetoelectronic and optoelectronic devices will be conducted. The PREM team will focus on the following key fundamental aspects of interface materials research: (1) theoretical calculations to predict mechanisms and guide the design of new oxide-oxide interface materials that enable electrical control of magnetism to achieve higher magnetoelectric coefficients at room temperature; (2) theoretical calculations, design and synthesis of ferromagnetic oxide/covalent organic framework COF van der Waals heterostructures and probing proximity-induced interlayer interactions, such as interlayer electronic coupling, and hybridization-induced charge delocalization on the COF layer formation; and (3) synthesis and electroconductive properties investigation of novel ferroelectric polymers/ferroelectric oxide interfaces.

The researchers and world-class instrument facilities at PARADIM will enable and catalyze the exploration of the basic science of interface materials and provide unique opportunities for cross-fertilization of ideas, mentoring, and multidisciplinary training. The collaborative team will foster a high-level of research intensity and a student-centered environment by holding research-focus group meetings via video teleconferencing, academic year research, summer school and REU, and site visits, where students, post-docs, and faculty, are immersed in seminars and hands-on workshops to learn techniques in interface materials design, synthesis and characterization.

Ultimately, this partnership will increase understanding of the structure-properties relationships of interface materials and pave the way for the next generation of oxide-based electronic materials.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.