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Nano-Materials  The structure of matter decides its properties. Understanding the relationships between the structure of materials at atomic or molecular scales and their macroscopic properties, will inevitably lead to the creation of materials with tailored properties. We are especially interested in the creation and study of materials whose defining structural properties are anywhere from less than a nanometer to one hundred nanometers in scale, such as molecularly engineered materials. The development and processing of materials is complex. Although scientific investigations have helped greatly in understanding the underlying phenomena, there remain many problems where quantitative treatments are dismally lacking. Establishing structure-property relationship for nano-scale materials is crucial as nanotechnology attempts to create nanostructures with tailored properties. However, understanding the structure-property relationship in nanostructures is very challenging because these systems contain >10^6 atoms, suggesting an extremely large phase space of sizes, shapes, and constituent materials. It is very difficult, if not impossible to directly scan such a large space. Furthermore, the position of each and every atom within the nanostructure cannot be probed or controlled during the fabrication process. Thus, the relevant structural information for understanding of underlying physics and for technological applications is structural motifs such as materials, size, shape, and composition profile. In contrast to specific attempts of device designs (e.g., to use genetic algorithms to design antennas), we are developing a general methodology of design nanostructures with target physical properties. By defining the required properties and then designing the material that has these properties, we aim to fundamentally change the historical practice of materials and nanostructure discovery. Find out more: | OO |
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