2011 Research Highlights

MRSEC researchers working in an international collaboration with French scientists at ESPCI (Paris Tech) have discovered that rocket-shaped metallic micro-rods can be propelled through fluids using

Interfacing topological insulators with superconductivity provides a possible route towards an analog of Majorana fermions in condensed matter.

The Penn State MRSEC (NSF DMR-0820404) completed its fourth science museum kit as part of its longstanding partnership with The Franklin Institute.

MRSEC researchers have discovered a missing spatial operation in nature called rotationreversal symmetry that reverses the sense of all static rotations in a crystal.

Silver-CdS-Gold trimers fabricated by quenched electrostatic assembly (shown at left) act as catalytic motors that can be switched on by light.

Insoluble polymer films depolymerize to release soluble monomeric products when exposed to a specific analyte.

Polymer-dispersed liquid crystals (PDLCs) are used in numerous applications including smart windows, displays, micro-lenses, lasers, and data storage due to their excellent electro-optical properti

Graphene, a sheet of carbon atoms arranged
in a honeycomb lattice, possesses many
excellent properties that are potentially useful
in electronic, optical and mechanical

MRSEC researchers have developed the materials necessary to embed GHz speed electronic photodetectors into micron diameter channels in optical fibers.

The novel properties of meta-materials enable new technologies such as electromagnetic cloaks, flat near- and far-field focusing lenses, and transformation optics devices.