Technical Description: Complex oxides have been fertile ground for new discoveries, due particularly to their wide-ranging electronic, optical, and magnetic properties. Interfaces between complex oxides and related materials create juxtapositions between different symmetries and ordered states, and it has become clear that these interfaces are new materials in their own right and lead to dramatically different properties from those in bulk. This project focuses on an iterative cooperation between forefront theory and experiment that determines the fundamental principles controlling new physical phenomena at oxide interfaces, uses these principles to design couplings between multiple orders at interfaces to generate new functionalities, and experimentally synthesizes and investigates designed interfacial materials for novel electronic devices. These atomic-scale interfacial materials can lead to, for example, new classes of electric-field controllable electronic and magnetic phenomena, and enable the development of new technologically important devices that exploit these couplings. Using a predictive theory and modeling, and feedback to theory from experiments, the research team aims to design, understand, and synthesize novel oxide hetero-interfaces that have unique properties not presently available.
Non-technical Description: New approaches to the discovery of materials displaying novel properties are critical for the continued scientific progress in condensed matter science and applications. This project addresses this need with a focus on "oxide interfacial materials," those formed at and near the atomically abrupt boundary between two oxygen-based materials, each of which can exhibit a stunning array of phenomena such as magnetism, piezoelectric behavior, superconductivity, and structural ordering. At the interface, interactions between these functionalities give rise to unexplored nanoscale behaviors. These new interfacial materials are some of the most promising in which to realize new phenomena that will challenge our current understanding, and that will develop new electronic device directions to address our society's technology needs. The project brings a broad educational experience to all students, interacting with faculty members of this research team at five universities, working with scientists at National Laboratories and international institutions, and participating in outreach activities. The faculty and graduate students work with secondary school teachers from the US and Puerto Rico to develop classroom material based on their materials genome learning/research experience.
