MRSEC: Columbia Center for Precision Assembly of Superstratic and Superatomic Solids

*非技术摘要*新材料通常是使用最基本的物质构建块--元素周期表中不同元素的原子--创造出来的。由哥伦比亚大学与纽约城市学院、哈佛大学、巴纳德学院和维尔京群岛大学合作领导的超层和超原子固体精密组装中心试图用两种新型的构建块来创造新材料：原子薄片堆叠成层状结构；以及精确定义的原子簇连接成大块固体。该中心的研究将提供对低维材料及其相互作用的更好理解。这一认识将有助于设计和发现在电子/磁性器件、光电子系统和热电学中有更好应用的新材料。该中心提供跨学科研究生研究培训和本科生研究机会；包括工业、国家实验室和国际上的研究伙伴；并将建立新的共享仪器设施，供研究界使用。该中心包括一个全面的计划，通过与当地三所K-12学校的合作来改善和支持科学教育，以及哥伦比亚新闻学院的一个新的试点计划。*技术摘要*该中心寻求利用原子精确的构建块来创造新的材料和结构。第一个研究推力将利用二维片，如导电石墨烯、绝缘氮化硼、半导体过渡金属二卤化物，以及一大类具有各种性能的其他材料。研究团队开发的新技术将被用来将这些材料组合成前所未有的大小、完美和复杂的层状异质结构。这些将被用来理解受保护的、超低无序环境中的性质，并在界面上实现紧急电子现象。第二个研究重点是将原子定义的团簇组装成具有新形式的簇间化学键的新类别的功能材料。这种方法将实现对集群属性和交互的独立调整，以获得具有前所未有的复杂性和功能性的设计者材料。三个重点领域是：对磁性和导电性的独立控制；对热电材料的热和电传输性质的独立控制；以及可能由光学、机械、热和其他刺激引起的电子相变的超级原子组件。该中心提供跨学科研究生研究培训和本科生研究机会；包括工业、国家实验室和国际上的研究伙伴；并将建立新的共享仪器设施，供研究界使用。该中心包括一个全面的计划，通过与当地三所K-12学校的合作来改善和支持科学教育，以及哥伦比亚新闻学院的一个新的试点计划。

****Nontechnical abstract****New materials are typically created using the most basic building blocks of matter - atoms of the different elements in the periodic table. The Center for Precision Assembly of Superstratic and Superatomic Solids -- led by Columbia University in partnership with City College of New York, Harvard University, Barnard College, and the University of the Virgin Islands -- seeks to create novel materials from two new types of building blocks: atomically thin sheets stacked into layered structures; and precisely defined clusters of atoms linked together into bulk solids. The Center research will provide better understanding of low-dimensional materials and their interactions. This understanding will aid in the design and discovery of new materials with better applications in electronic/magnetic devices, optoelectronic systems, and thermoelectrics. The Center provides interdisciplinary graduate research training and opportunities for undergraduate research; includes research partners in industry, national laboratories, and internationally; and will build new shared instrumentation facilities available to the research community. The Center includes a comprehensive program to improve and support science education through partnerships with three local K-12 schools, and a new pilot program at the Columbia School of Journalism. ****Technical abstract****This Center seeks to utilize atomically precise building blocks to create new materials and structures. The first research thrust will utilize two-dimensional sheets such as conducting graphene, insulating boron nitride, semiconducting transition metal dichalcogenides, and a large family of other materials with a wide variety of properties. New techniques developed by the research team will be used to combine these materials into layered heterostructures with unprecedented size, perfection, and complexity. These will be used to understand properties in a protected, ultralow-disorder environment, and to achieve emergent electronic phenomena at interfaces. The second research thrust will assemble atomically defined clusters into new classes of functional materials with new forms of inter-cluster chemical bonding. This approach will enable independent tuning of cluster properties and interaction to achieve designer materials with unprecedented levels of complexity and functionality. Three areas of focus are: independent control over magnetism and conductivity; independent control over thermal and electrical transport properties for thermoelectrics; and superatom assemblies that can have electronic phase transitions that may be induced by optical, mechanical, thermal, and other stimuli. The Center provides interdisciplinary graduate research training and opportunities for undergraduate research; includes research partners in industry, national laboratories, and internationally; and will build new shared instrumentation facilities available to the research community. The Center includes a comprehensive program to improve and support science education through partnerships with three local K-12 schools, and a new pilot program at the Columbia School of Journalism.