INSPIRE Track 1: Exploring New Route of Optically Mediated Self-Assembly: Final Material Properties Determine Its Structures

INSPIRE奖部分由数学与物理科学理事会材料研究部的电子与光子材料项目和固态与材料化学项目资助；以及工程局土木、机械和制造创新部门的纳米制造项目。技术描述：结构-性能关系长期以来一直推动着新材料的发现。光学超材料是一种复合材料，通过结构设计实现了前所未有的材料性能，如负折射率和隐身性，为材料科学引入了一个新的维度。超材料研究通常采用“结构决定性质”的方法。采用合理设计的对称破断结构的材料性能可以通过自上而下的制造方法（如光刻）实现，从而产生强各向异性但小规模的超材料。传统的自组装方法可能具有可扩展性和成本效益的优势，但通常会产生具有高度对称性的简单结构，因为复杂和对称性破坏的结构通常不具有热力学优势。在这个项目中，将材料化学与光学物理学相结合，研究人员的目标是通过探索一种开创性的“性质-决定-结构”的新方法来克服上述关键挑战，这种新方法用于可扩展合成一类具有独特性质或自然界中没有的性质的新型超材料。通过研究纳米复合材料的对称效应和等离子体介导的自组装模型，该团队正在开发新的反馈策略来控制自组装过程。等离子体激元是金属表面电子的集体振荡。利用这种自主反馈机制，最终的材料性质决定了自组装过程中材料结构的演变，从而实现了所需的复杂对称破缺结构。非技术描述：这个跨学科项目汇集了来自光学和化学的研究人员，开发了一种革命性的自组装路线，以大规模合成具有复杂对称性的材料，远远超出了通过传统技术制造或合成的材料。光本身被用来引导组装成所需的结构。该团队将这个研究项目与教育活动结合起来。例如，该项目开发的纳米化学、光学物理、制造、光学/化学表征和计算技术为培养学生成为下一代科学和工程领域的领导者提供了多学科环境。该合作项目旨在重塑光学物理和材料化学领域的材料研究，对制造业、能源技术和医疗保健领域的广泛应用产生深远影响。

This INSPIRE award is partially funded by the Electronic and Photonic Materials Program and the Solid State and Materials Chemistry Program in the Division of Materials Research in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences; and the Nanomanufacturing Program in the Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation in the Directorate for Engineering.Technical Description: Structure-property relationships have long driven the discovery of novel materials. Optical metamaterials, a composite through structural design to achieve unprecedented materials properties, e.g., negative index of refraction and cloaking, introduce a new dimension in materials science. Metamaterials research has conventionally taken a "structures-determine-properties" approach. Material properties using rationally designed symmetry-breaking structures that can be realized by top-down fabrication methods such as lithography result in strongly anisotropic but small-scale metamaterials. Conventional self-assembly approaches, which may offer advantages of scalability and cost effectiveness, often result in simple structures with high degree of symmetry because complex and symmetry-broken structures are usually not thermodynamically favorable. In this project, combining material chemistry with optical physics, the investigators aim to overcome aforementioned critical challenges by exploring a path-breaking new approach of "properties-determine-structures" for scalable synthesis of a new class of metamaterials with unique properties, or properties not found in nature. Through the study of the symmetry effects of nanocomposites and models of plasmon-mediated self-assemblies, the team is developing new feedback strategies for controlling self-assembly processes. Plasmon is collective oscillation of electrons on metal surfaces. Using such autonomous feedback mechanisms, the final material properties dictate the material structural evolution during self-assembly, thereby achieving the desired complex symmetry-breaking structures.Non-technical Description: This interdisciplinary project brings together researchers from optics and chemistry to develop a revolutionary self-assembly route to large-scale synthesis of materials with complex symmetries that go far beyond materials fabricated or synthesized through conventional techniques. Light itself is used to guide the assembly into the desired structures. The team integrates this research project with education activities. For instance, the nanochemistry, optical physics, fabrication, optical/chemical characterization, and computational techniques developed in this project provide a multidisciplinary setting for training students to be next generation of leaders in science and engineering. This collaborative project aims to reshape materials research in both optical physics and material chemistry with a profound impact on a broad range of applications in manufacturing, energy technology and health care.