Cornell University will lead a Materials Innovation Platform, a new NSF mid-scale instrumentation program supported in the Division of Materials Research. Cornell University, in partnership with Clark Atlanta University, Johns Hopkins University, and Princeton University form the Platform for the Accelerated Realization, Analysis, and Discovery of Interface Materials (PARADIM). PARADIM seeks to advance fundamental understanding of oxide-based hetero-interfaces with a range of two-dimensional (2D) material systems including oxides, chalcogenides and graphene through transformational research and mid-scale investments in instrumentation for bulk and thin film crystal growth and characterization. Fabricating interfaces and heterostructures between complex oxides and 2D materials allows for the creation of an atomically-precise "active substrate" that can itself have novel electronic and magnetic functionality, such as ferroelectricity, ferromagnetism, or superconductivity. Creating interface materials with designed properties opens up untold degrees of freedom that may result in transformational evolutions in next generation electronics.
PARADIM's in-house research team will focus on developing hetero-interfaces that exhibit broken valley symmetry at interfaces between 2D materials and active substrates with novel electronic and magnetic functionality. External researchers from across the U.S. also working to advance the next generation of electronic devices; specifically those researching valleytronics, spintronics, and multiferroics; will also have access to the Platform's growth capabilities and the expertise in synthesis, characterization, and theoretical modeling. Along with access to mid-scale level tools and expertise, a unique feature of the Platform is the access to new oxide bulk single crystal samples and epitaxial thin film heterostructures produced and curated by PARADIM. Signature mid-scale instruments of the Platform include a suite of specialty bulk single crystal growth instruments with in-situ characterization tools capable of growing manganites, ferrites, cobaltates, nickelates, ruthenates, iridates and other compelling oxide systems. An MBE tool with unique in-situ diagnostic capabilities and a tandem MOCVD instrument for depositing non-oxide systems such as chalcogenides is also available. The combination of instruments allows for the growth of a wide variety of inorganic systems, yielding crystals for fundamental studies, novel heterostructures exhibiting novel properties, and bulk substrates on which to grow unexplored thin film phases and structures. In addition, the Platform makes available an impressive range of TEMs capable of high-throughput structural and chemical analysis as well as magnetic imaging and low-temperature spectroscopic mapping. The research of external users and those of the PARADIM in-house team together create a community of researchers poised to make transformational gains in the accelerated discovery and deployment of new electronic materials, specifically enabling new oxide bulk single crystals and novel heterostructures.
Along with an annual REU program, PARADIM will offer hands-on research experiences for local undergraduates year-round in the crystal growth facilities. In addition, educational materials will be available to users of PARADIM in the form of on-line short courses as well as a Materials-by-Design Toolbox that provides open-source software and databases to users on-line. A signature outreach program will be the annual PARADIM Summer Schools, where graduate students, post-docs, young faculty, and industrial scientists are immersed in a seminar and hands-on workshop environment to learn techniques in bulk and thin film crystal growth, theory, and characterization. Workshops will also be held that are industry focused.
The Platform for the Accelerated Realization, Analysis, and Discovery of Interface Materials (PARADIM) will help users design and create new interface materials - materials that do not exist in nature - with unprecedented properties for the next generation of electronic devices. Creating new interface materials with unprecedented properties, by design rather than by serendipity, is accomplished in PARADIM through a synergistic set of user facilities dedicated to theory (figuring out where to put the atoms for useful behavior), synthesis (putting the atoms in the targeted positions), and characterization (seeing that the atoms are indeed in the desired positions). Each of these world-class user facilities is equipped with the latest tools, techniques, and expertise to realize this materials-by-design dream. Users from throughout the nation will use PARADIM to discover and create interface materials for the next generation of electronics and optoelectronics. These new materials will enable novel ways for electrons to carry information in solid-state devices and efficiently interact with magnetic, electrical, and optical stimuli. To balance the desire for a rich nation-wide user group and the practicality of managing physical resources across different locations, PARADIM locates its web-based theory user facility at Clark Atlanta University, its bulk crystal growth user facility at Johns Hopkins University, and its thin film growth and characterization user facilities at Cornell University. Researchers from Princeton University will participate in the in-house research activity. PARADIM's user facilities leverage existing user facilities including the Cornell NanoScale Facility, the Cornell Center for Materials Research, and the Johns Hopkins Materials Characterization and Processing Facility.
In addition to training materials innovators to work effectively in teams, PARADIM will conduct free summer schools involving hands-on use of PARADIM facilities to help educate PARADIM's "community of practitioners" and advance the field through the cross-fertilization of ideas. PARADIM will also serve as a focal point for training the next generation of technologists - people who are accustomed to designing and creating new interface materials with atomic precision and have the skills necessary to capitalize on useful new interface material ideas and make them a reality. This platform marks the beginning of a new PARADIM in materials discovery.
