Structure property relationships in transition metal oxides

这个研究项目试图回答这个问题，为什么固体材料具有它们所表现出的特性？也就是说，为什么有些材料是良好的导电体，而另一些材料是如此差的导体，以至于它们可以用来隔离电子元件彼此？有些材料表现出强磁性，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排斥的吗？我们最感兴趣的材料是金属元素（例如铁或钛）与氧气（我们呼吸的气体）之间的化合物。这些化合物被称为金属氧化物，已知的化合物有数千种，每年还会发现数百种。它们展示了著名的“高温超导体”的全部特性——它曾登上《纽约时报》的头版，其中电流可以永远流向前面提到的冰箱门磁铁，没有这些磁铁，我们的生活将会变得不那么有条理！我们认为，理解上述问题的关键是研究和理解“晶体结构”所起的作用，原子（亚纳米！！）尺度上的确切结构，以及在结构内某些战略位置上用一种化学元素取代另一种化学元素对所展示的电、磁和其他性质的影响。因此，在我们的研究中，我们用不同的金属和氧的组合来制造新的金属氧化物，研究晶体结构，测量关键性质，然后努力思考，以理解呈现的模式。

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.