Structure property relationships in transition metal oxides

这个研究项目试图回答这样一个问题：为什么固体材料具有它们所表现出的特性？也就是说，为什么有些材料是电的良导体，而另一些材料是如此不良的导体，以至于它们可以用来使电气元件彼此绝缘？虽然有些材料表现出强磁性，如冰箱门磁铁，而其他人实际上是排斥在一个强磁铁的存在？我们最感兴趣的材料是由金属元素如铁或钛与我们呼吸的气体氧气之间的化合物组成。这些化合物被称为金属氧化物，已知有数千种，每年还有数百种被发现。它们展示了著名的“高温超导体”的全部特性--曾经在纽约时报的头版上出现过，其中电流可以永远流向前面提到的冰箱门磁铁，如果没有它，我们的生活就不会那么井然有序！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，即原子（亚纳米！！）上的确切结构。规模以及在结构内的某些关键位置用一种化学元素替代另一种化学元素对所表现出的电、磁和其他性质的影响。因此，在我们的研究中，我们制造了新的金属氧化物，其金属和氧的组合与以前任何人都不同，研究了晶体结构，测量了关键特性，然后努力思考以理解所呈现的模式。

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.