Award Abstract # 2011839
MRSEC: Center for Nanoscale Science

NSF Org: DMR
Division Of Materials Research
Recipient: THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
Initial Amendment Date: June 29, 2020
Latest Amendment Date: March 13, 2025
Award Number: 2011839
Award Instrument: Cooperative Agreement
Program Manager: Serdar Ogut
sogut@nsf.gov
 (703)292-4429
DMR
 Division Of Materials Research
MPS
 Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Start Date: September 1, 2020
End Date: August 31, 2026 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $18,000,000.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $14,980,000.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2020 = $3,590,000.00
FY 2021 = $2,720,000.00

FY 2022 = $2,820,000.00

FY 2023 = $3,000,000.00

FY 2024 = $2,850,000.00
History of Investigator:
  • Vincent Crespi (Principal Investigator)
  • Susan Sinnott (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Jon-Paul Maria (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Jun Zhu (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Joshua Robinson (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Lauren Zarzar (Former Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Ismaila Dabo (Former Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
201 OLD MAIN
UNIVERSITY PARK
PA  US  16802-1503
(814)865-1372
Sponsor Congressional District: 15
Primary Place of Performance: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
University Park
PA  US  16802-1503
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
15
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): NPM2J7MSCF61
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): MATERIALS RSCH SCI & ENG CENT
Primary Program Source: 01002425DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
01002223DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01002324DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01002425DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01002223DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01002122DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01002324DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01002021DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01002526DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 1711, 062Z, 7237, 9178, 094Z, 095Z, 9250, 054Z, 8614, 9177
Program Element Code(s): 173500
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.049

ABSTRACT

Nontechnical abstract:
The Penn State Materials Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) - Center for Nanoscale Science pursues new materials platforms, aspiring to deliver the materials of the future. Advancement of these platforms requires a cross-disciplinary Center-scale effort, one that fosters a widening gyre of innovation and discovery in emerging research areas of compelling opportunity. This MRSEC?s interdisciplinary research group (IRG) Two-Dimensional Polar Metals and Heterostructures studies ultrathin sheets of metals covered by an atomically thin sheet of carbon ? graphene ? which protects the metal from rusting. These structures provide a ground-breaking way to form combinations of materials whose individual quantum properties may come together to enable new materials for quantum computing as well as new sensor technologies. The IRG Crystalline Oxides with High Entropy also pioneers a new frontier of materials discovery, in this case crystalline materials composed of a multitude of chemical elements. Out of this huge compositional diversity it is possible to design materials with attributes that are valuable in energy or defense applications, such as transparent metals or materials capable of withstanding extreme environments. The Center?s multifaceted educational program introduces a core professional development theme of Sustainability in research practice and outcomes, expands educational offerings that increase access to STEM for disabled populations, and further deepens and expands two Partnerships for Research and Education in Materials (PREM) through pervasive mentoring. In addition, knowledge transfer and the instilling of industry-valued leadership and team-building skills amongst Penn State MRSEC researchers at all levels amplify impact nationwide.

Technical abstract:
The air-stable two-dimensional metals studied by IRG1 are bonded covalently below and non-bonded above: such symmetry breaking activates novel electronic, spintronic, and optical phenomena such as strongly nonlinear optics, ultralow-background Raman enhancement, and the types of spin-dependent bandstructures critical to polar and topological superconductivity; these transformative properties promise impacts in biosensing, quantum heterostructures, and nonlinear metasurfaces. IRG2 seeks to define the crystal chemistry principles that guide data-informed material design in a high-configurational-entropy landscape, in which the rich diversity of crystal environments defines an ?entropy bank? from which a material can make ?withdrawals? to achieve ground-breaking properties not otherwise possible; these unique features anticipate broad impacts in ion conduction, transparent conductors, electrocaloric materials, and correlated oxides. Key equipment acquisitions expand access to specialized tools while systematic support for innovation and entrepreneurship across all career stages amplifies the impact of fundamental science innovation, all supported by targeted international research connections.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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(Showing: 1 - 10 of 147)
Almishal, Saeed_S I and Miao, Leixin and Tan, Yueze and Kotsonis, George N and Sivak, Jacob T and Alem, Nasim and Chen, LongQing and Crespi, Vincent H and Dabo, Ismaila and Rost, Christina M and Sinnott, Susan B and Maria, JonPaul "Order evolution from a highentropy matrix: Understanding and predicting paths to lowtemperature equilibrium" Journal of the American Ceramic Society , v.108 , 2025 https://doi.org/10.1111/jace.20223 Citation Details
Almishal, Saeed SI and Sivak, Jacob T and Kotsonis, George N and Tan, Yueze and Furst, Matthew and Srikanth, Dhiya and Crespi, Vincent H and Gopalan, Venkatraman and Heron, John T and Chen, Long-Qing and Rost, Christina M and Sinnott, Susan B and Maria, J "Untangling individual cation roles in rock salt high-entropy oxides" Acta Materialia , v.279 , 2024 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2024.120289 Citation Details
Ye, Jiarong and Yeh, Yin-Ting and Xue, Yuan and Wang, Ziyang and Zhang, Na and Liu, He and Zhang, Kunyan and Ricker, RyeAnne and Yu, Zhuohang and Roder, Allison and Perea Lopez, Nestor and Organtini, Lindsey and Greene, Wallace and Hafenstein, Susan and L "Accurate virus identification with interpretable Raman signatures by machine learning" Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , v.119 , 2022 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2118836119 Citation Details
Yi, Hemian and Hu, Lun-Hui and Wang, Yuanxi and Xiao, Run and Cai, Jiaqi and Hickey, Danielle Reifsnyder and Dong, Chengye and Zhao, Yi-Fan and Zhou, Ling-Jie and Zhang, Ruoxi and Richardella, Anthony R. and Alem, Nasim and Robinson, Joshua A. and Chan, M "Crossover from Ising- to Rashba-type superconductivity in epitaxial Bi2Se3/monolayer NbSe2 heterostructures" Nature Materials , v.21 , 2022 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-022-01386-z Citation Details
Yi, Hemian and Hu, Lun-Hui and Zhao, Yi-Fan and Zhou, Ling-Jie and Yan, Zi-Jie and Zhang, Ruoxi and Yuan, Wei and Wang, Zihao and Wang, Ke and Hickey, Danielle Reifsnyder and Richardella, Anthony R. and Singleton, John and Winter, Laurel E. and Wu, Xianxi "Dirac-fermion-assisted interfacial superconductivity in epitaxial topological-insulator/iron-chalcogenide heterostructures" Nature Communications , v.14 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-42902-2 Citation Details
Yi, Hemian and Zhao, Yi-Fan and Chan, Ying-Ting and Cai, Jiaqi and Mei, Ruobing and Wu, Xianxin and Yan, Zi-Jie and Zhou, Ling-Jie and Zhang, Ruoxi and Wang, Zihao and Paolini, Stephen and Xiao, Run and Wang, Ke and Richardella, Anthony R. and Singleton, "Interface-induced superconductivity in magnetic topological insulators" Science , v.383 , 2024 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adk1270 Citation Details
Yoo, Sangmin and Chae, Sieun and Chiang, Tony and Webb, Matthew and Ma, Tao and Paik, Hanjong and Park, Yongmo and Williams, Logan and Nomoto, Kazuki and Xing, Huili G and Trolier-McKinstry, Susan and Kioupakis, Emmanouil and Heron, John T and Lu, Wei D "Efficient data processing using tunable entropy-stabilized oxide memristors" Nature Electronics , 2024 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-024-01169-1 Citation Details
Yuan, Wei and Yan, Zi-Jie and Yi, Hemian and Wang, Zihao and Paolini, Stephen and Zhao, Yi-Fan and Zhou, Lingjie and Wang, Annie G and Wang, Ke and Prokscha, Thomas and Salman, Zaher and Suter, Andreas and Balakrishnan, Purnima P and Grutter, Alexander J "Coexistence of Superconductivity and Antiferromagnetism in Topological Magnet MnBi 2 Te 4 Films" Nano Letters , v.24 , 2024 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c01407 Citation Details
Yuan, Wei and Zhou, Ling-Jie and Yang, Kaijie and Zhao, Yi-Fan and Zhang, Ruoxi and Yan, Zijie and Zhuo, Deyi and Mei, Ruobing and Wang, Yang and Yi, Hemian and Chan, Moses H. and Kayyalha, Morteza and Liu, Chao-Xing and Chang, Cui-Zu "Electrical switching of the edge current chirality in quantum anomalous Hall insulators" Nature Materials , v.23 , 2024 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-023-01694-y Citation Details
Yu, Mingyu and Iddawela, Sahani Amaya and Wang, Jiayang and Hilse, Maria and Thompson, Jessica L and Reifsnyder_Hickey, Danielle and Sinnott, Susan B and Law, Stephanie "Quasi-Van der Waals Epitaxial Growth of -GaSe Nanometer-Thick Films on GaAs(111)B Substrates" ACS Nano , v.18 , 2024 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.4c04194 Citation Details
Yu, Mingyu and Wang, Jiayang and Iddawela, Sahani A and McDonough, Molly and Thompson, Jessica L and Sinnott, Susan B and Reifsnyder_Hickey, Danielle and Law, Stephanie "Treatment and aging studies of GaAs(111)B substrates for van der Waals chalcogenide film growth" Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B , v.42 , 2024 https://doi.org/10.1116/6.0003470 Citation Details
(Showing: 1 - 10 of 147)

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