Wisconsin MRSEC

Non-Technical Abstract

The Wisconsin Materials Research Science and Engineering Center addresses grand challenges in two areas of materials science and engineering: (1) how atoms and molecules move in liquids and glasses and (2) developing new forms of magnetism using ultrathin, atomically perfect membranes. Addressing the first challenge depends on combining new kinds of experiments with developments in artificial intelligence.

Advances will have applications in creating new glasses for organic electronic applications like electronics displays and photovoltaics and in enabling new formulations of drug molecules into pills (or other forms) patients use. Addressing the second challenge involves using bending and stretching of membranes to disturb their regular pattern of atoms, creating new patterns in the distribution of magnetic poles on very short length scales of just tens of nanometers.

Advances will have applications in information processing, including in high-speed, nonvolatile data storage, and in the emerging area of quantum computing. The Center also supports materials research infrastructure, including a new facility using ultrafast pulses of ultraviolet light to study materials, and partnerships with industry. To broaden participation in materials research, the Center runs an extended orientation program called Forward Fellows to jumpstart the graduate careers of first-generation, historically underrepresented, or other non-traditional students.

It also seeks to inspire people to pursue careers in science and engineering through public outreach, including reaching economically disadvantaged people in partnership with service organizations and reaching blind and low vision people in partnership with the Wisconsin Council for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

Technical Abstract

The Wisconsin Materials Research Science and Engineering Center addresses grand challenges in two areas of materials science and engineering: (1) mobility in glasses and supercooled liquids at the molecular level and (2) creation and control of nonequilibrium magnetic states in strained single crystal membranes. Research in the first area will utilize coherent electron nanodiffraction experiments to resolve local dynamics and physics-inspired machine learning to develop molecular-level understanding from simulations.

Potential technological applications include glassy films of organic semiconductors with high molecular anisotropy for organic electronics and stabilization of drug molecules in the amorphous state for pharmaceutical preparations. Research in the second area builds on a unique materials platform of non-van der Waals single crystal membranes, subjected to strains and strain gradients to break crystal symmetries and induce novel magnetic states.

Potential technological applications include stabilizing skyrmions or other spin textures for nonvolatile memory and increased efficiency quantum transduction from spins to light and vice versa. The Center also supports materials research infrastructure, including a new facility for ultrafast extreme ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy, and an industrial consortium to foster partnerships between companies and Center researchers.

To encourage broader participation in materials research, the Center runs an extended graduate orientation and professional development program called Forward Fellows, designed to give first generation, historically underrepresented, or other non-traditional students a jump start on graduate school. The Center also seeks to inspire people to pursue careers in science and engineering through public outreach, including reaching economically disadvantaged people in partnership with service organizations and reaching blind and low vision people in partnership with the Wisconsin Council for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

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.