2023 UCI MRSEC Seed Funding Program
Materials engineering for chiral and non-reciprocal excitations
PIs: Maxx Q. Arguilla (Chemistry), Elizabeth M.Y. Lee (MSE), Wilson Ho, Ilya Krivorotov, Judit Romhanyi (Physics & Astronomy)
The team will engineer new materials supporting chiral and non-reciprocal bosonic excitations such as chiral polaritons and non-reciprocal phonons. The chiral and non-reciprocal quasiparticles hold great promise for applications in information processing, communications and sensing. The team will design and test hybrid materials with desired symmetries and interactions in order to generate chirality and non-reciprocity of the excitations via interface-induced hybridization. We will also synthesize and study novel crystals with intrinsic or programmed structural chirality, which are expected to host chiral electronic and phononic quasiparticles. Our approach opens a new route to engineering of exotic and functional excitations.
2022 Seed Program Projects
Structured strain and deformations on van der Waals (vdW) quantum material heterostructures
- Javier Sanchez-Yamagishi, Luis A. Jauregui (Physics & Astronomy) & SungWoo Nam (MAE) (UCI)
The team will study the effect of large strains and controlled plastic deformations on van der Waals (vdW) quantum material heterostructures. A unique property of vdW heterostructures is the weak interlayer bonds which support interlayer sliding as a reversible mode of plastic deformation without breaking covalent bonds. The guiding hypothesis is that these deformations can be controlled to engineer internal stacking domains and dislocations which can dynamically and reversibly modify material properties. We envision structured deformations as a new route toward programmable and reconfigurable materials at the atomic scale, which can be used as the basis of advanced microelectronics including neuromorphic computing, adaptive sensors, and other novel devices based on mechanically-coupled properties.
Nanoarchitected active materials
- Lorenzo Valdevit (MSE) & Camilo Velez-Cuervo (MAE) (UCI)
Surfaces (solid/vapor interfaces) control the response in nanoscale materials, giving rise to exciting size effects and emergent phenomena (e.g., metals and ceramic nanopillars exhibiting near-theoretical strength, and zirconia nanopillars displaying considerable shape memory effect). A key scientific question emerges:Can nanoscale-enabled functional phenomena in polycrystalline ceramic and metallic systems provide a platform for the design and fabrication of novel nanoarchitected active materials? In this seed project,we will investigate two different physical responses, shape memory effect and ferromagnetism, and apply advanced additive manufacturing technologies and materials characterization techniques to fabricate and characterize topologically complex nanoarchite
2021 Seed Program Projects
Herdeline Ann M. Ardoña & Albert F. Yee (UCI)
Title: Direct Self-Assembly of Optoelectronic Peptides on Nanostructured Polymeric Surfaces
Kandis Leslie Abdul-Aziz (UCR)
Title: Active complex concentrated composites via regenerable alloy exsolution from multi-component ceramics
Penghui Cao (UCI)
Title: Learning and predicting diffusivity and diffusion pathways
Seunghyun Sim (UCI)
Title: Controlling supramolecular polymerization by living electrogenic bacteria
Javier Sanchez-Yamagishi & Luis A. Jauregui (UCI)
Title: Moiré superlattices and dynamic heterostrain in non-hexagonal van der Waals heterostructures
