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

****非技术摘要****新材料通常是用最基本的物质构建块——元素周期表中不同元素的原子——来创建的。由哥伦比亚大学领导的超层和超原子固体精密组装中心与纽约城市学院、哈佛大学、巴纳德学院和维尔京群岛大学合作，试图从两种新型构建模块中创造出新型材料：原子薄片堆叠成层状结构；精确定义的原子团连在一起形成大块固体。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。这种理解将有助于设计和发现在电子/磁性器件、光电系统和热电器件中更好应用的新材料。中心为研究生提供跨学科的研究培训和本科生的研究机会；包括工业界、国家实验室和国际上的研究合作伙伴；并将为研究界建立新的共享仪器设施。该中心包括一个通过与三所当地K-12学校合作来改善和支持科学教育的综合项目，以及哥伦比亚大学新闻学院的一个新的试点项目。****技术摘要****该中心寻求利用原子精确的构建模块来创建新的材料和结构。第一个研究重点将利用二维薄片，如导电石墨烯、绝缘氮化硼、半导体过渡金属二硫族化合物，以及其他一系列具有多种性能的材料。研究小组开发的新技术将用于将这些材料组合成具有前所未有的尺寸，完美和复杂性的层状异质结构。这些将用于了解受保护的超低无序环境中的特性，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团簇间化学键的新型功能材料。这种方法将支持独立调优集群属性和交互，以实现具有前所未有的复杂性和功能的设计器材料。三个重点领域是：磁性和导电性的独立控制；独立控制热电体的热电输运特性；超原子组件可以有电子相变，可以由光学、机械、热和其他刺激引起。中心为研究生提供跨学科的研究培训和本科生的研究机会；包括工业界、国家实验室和国际上的研究合作伙伴；并将为研究界建立新的共享仪器设施。该中心包括一个通过与三所当地K-12学校合作来改善和支持科学教育的综合项目，以及哥伦比亚大学新闻学院的一个新的试点项目。

****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.