Structure property relationships in transition metal oxides

这项研究计划试图回答这样一个问题，为什么固体材料具有它们所展示的特性？也就是说，为什么有些材料是良好的导电体，而另一些材料却是如此糟糕的导体，以至于它们可以用来将电子元件彼此绝缘？而有些材料表现出很强的磁性，比如冰箱门上的磁铁，而另一些材料在强磁铁的存在下实际上是被排斥的？我们最感兴趣的材料是铁或钛等金属元素和氧气之间的化合物，氧气是我们呼吸的气体。这些化合物被称为金属氧化物，已知的有数千种，每年还会发现数百种。它们展示了著名的“高温超导体”的全部性质--一旦登上《纽约时报》的头版，电流就可以永远流向前面提到的冰箱门磁铁，如果没有磁铁，我们的生活就不会有那么好的组织！我们相信，理解上面提出的问题的关键是研究和理解“晶体结构”所扮演的角色，这是原子(亚纳米！！)上存在的确切结构！规模以及在结构内的某些战略位置用一种化学元素替代另一种化学元素对所展示的电、磁和其他性能的影响。因此，在我们的研究中，我们用比以往任何人都不同的金属和氧的组合来制造新的金属氧化物，研究其晶体结构，测量关键性质，然后非常努力地思考，以努力理解所呈现的图案。

This research programme attempts to answer the question, why do solid materials have the properties which they exhibit? That is, why are some materials good conductors of electricity while others are such poor conductors that they can be used to insulate electrical components from one another? While do some materials exhibit strong magnetism such as refrigerator door magnets while others are actually repelled in the presence of a strong magnet? The materials of most interest to us consist of chemical compounds between metallic elements such as iron or titanium for example and oxygen, the gas which we breathe. These compounds are called metal oxides and thousands of them are known with hundreds more being discovered each year. They exhibit the complete spectrum of properties from the famous "high temperature superconductors" - once featured on the front page of the New York Times,in which electrical currents can flow forever to the aforementioned fridge door magnets without which our lives would be much less well-organized!We believe that the key to understanding the questions posed above is to study and understand the roles played by the "crystal structure", the exact architecture present on the atomic (sub-nanometer!!) scale and the effect of substituting one chemical element for another in some strategic location within the structure on the electrical, magnetic and other properties exhibited. Thus, in our research we make new metal oxides with different combinations of metals and oxygen than anyone has made before, investigate the crystal structure, measure the key properties and then think very hard in an effort to understand the patterns which are presented.