UTA/NU Partnership for Functional Materials

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。德克萨斯大学阿灵顿分校(UTA)位于经济繁荣、种族多元化的达拉斯-沃斯堡大都会中心，是德克萨斯州北部一所被指定为拉美裔服务机构(HSI)的主要大学，注册学生约50,000人，其中超过45%的少数族裔(URM)本科生。UTA与西北大学(NU)材料研究科学与工程中心(MRSEC)合作的材料研究与教育(PREM)SEED项目的目标是：(I)建立一个关于功能材料的跨学科协作前沿研究计划；(Ii)通过提供研究和教育机会、全面的学生指导和专业发展计划，为URM学生提供教育渠道。这种合作关系包括互访教员，并让学生接触诺丁汉大学的研究和设施。本科生研究是招收和留住材料研究专业的URM学生的核心战略，同时也是NU本科生研究经验项目的核心战略。PREM计划还涉及HBCU下属的格拉姆林州立大学(GSU)的参与，并在UTA与GSU和其他为URM服务的机构和国家组织建立网络，以便能够长期、可持续地招收URM学生。这个PREM SEED项目解决了功能材料研究的两个关键基本方面，具有重大的技术和社会影响。在第一个焦点区域，我们将探索混合维度异质结构中的电子输运和能量过滤。电子的热激发拓宽了电子的能量分布，从而掩盖或阻止了新现象的出现。量子态将被用作能量过滤器，抑制电子的热分布，降低有效电子温度。因此，我们将研究电子在不同维度的量子态中的输运，并对由此产生的电子能量分布进行电学和光学测量。这一基础研究在量子信息技术、节能电子学和自旋电子学等领域具有重要的应用价值。第二个重点领域将提供具有可调性能的新的异阴离子半导体功能材料，这些性能是更简单的同阴离子结构和化学物质无法获得的。将利用在计算识别新的热力学稳定化合物方面的进展，并将对新化合物进行严格的计算机辅助光电性质预测。将实现合成这些材料的省时、节能的合成路线，以便快速筛选和技术实施。这项工作的重点是一类基本上被忽视的材料，它承诺可调的能带结构以及对技术应用至关重要的高电子迁移率和光电子属性，如太阳能转换、磁性和光电子器件。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), located in the heart of the economically thriving, ethnically diverse Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, is a major university in North Texas designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) with an enrollment of about 50,000 students and more than 45% underrepresented minority (URM) undergraduates. The goal of this Partnership in Research and Education in Materials (PREM)SEED project between UTA and the Northwestern University (NU) Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) is to establish (i) an interdisciplinary collaborative cutting-edge research program on functional materials; and (ii) an educational pipeline for URM students by providing research and educational opportunities, comprehensive student mentoring, and professional development programs. The partnership involves reciprocal faculty visits and exposure of students to research and facilities at NU. Undergraduate research is a core strategy for recruiting and retaining URM students in materials research along with programs in research experience for undergraduates at NU. The PREM program also involves the participation of Grambling State University (GSU), an HBCU institution, and the establishment of a network at UTA with GSU and other URM-serving institutions and national organizations to enable long-term, sustainable recruiting of URM students. This PREM SEED project addresses two key fundamental aspects of functional materials research with major technological and societal impact. In the first focus area, electron transport and energy filtering across mixed-dimensional heterostructures will be explored. Thermal excitation of electrons broadens the electron energy distribution, which obscures or prevents the emergence of novel phenomena. A quantum state will be used as an energy filter, suppressing electron thermal distribution, and lowering the effective electron temperature. Therefore, electron transport through quantum states of different dimensionalities will be studied and the resulting electron energy distribution will be measured electrically and optically. This fundamental research has important applicability in quantum information technologies, energy-efficient electronics, and spintronics. The second focus area will deliver new hetero-anionic semiconductor functional materials with tunable properties that are otherwise inaccessible from simpler homo-anionic structures and chemistries. Advances in the computational identification of new, thermodynamically stable compounds will be leveraged, and the new compounds will be subjected to rigorous computer-aided prediction of optoelectronic properties. Time-efficient and energy-efficient synthetic routes for synthesizing these materials will be realized for rapid screening and technological implementation. The effort focuses on a largely overlooked materials class that promises tunable band structure along with high electronic mobility and optoelectronic attributes that are crucial for technological applications, such as solar energy conversion, magnetic, and optoelectronic devices.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.