…a U.S. National Science Foundation funded Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (NSF MRSEC) located at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego)

UC San Diego Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, a renewed six-year $18M grant from the NSF, is a joint initiative between the Jacobs School of Engineering and the School of Physical Sciences. Research efforts are conducted within two Interdisciplinary Research Groups (IRGs):

1) Quantum Metamaterials – transcends the boundaries of conventional optics by creating a novel class of materials known as quantum metamaterials.
2) Chemical Superlattices – harnesses the power of synthetic chemistry to design a new class of electronic materials that are only a few atoms thick. 

This new grant brings together physicists, chemists, materials scientists and engineers to collaborate on quantum materials. Read more on the News page of our website with links to UC San Diego and NSF press releases.

Quantum Metamaterials are a cutting-edge subset of metamaterials, that in general, control how light moves through the material — amplifying the light, bending it, and changing its speed. Although metamaterials were invented only about 25 years ago, they are used in many important technologies. For example, metamaterials are being developed for use with clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners to shape radiofrequency fields, with the potential to improve image quality and reduce acquisition times.

The Chemically Tailored Superlattices team is focused on developing new ways to control the properties of electrons in sheet-like materials that are only a few atoms thick — so thin that they only allow electrons to move through them in uniquely ordered ways. The order imposed on the electrons by these so-called two-dimensional superlattice structures has a profound impact on their behavior, and it has exciting implications for next-generation electronics.

Group illustrationThe MRSEC faculty are experts in their research and education domains with established track records of participation in multi-investigator projects. The team includes assistant, mid-career, and senior faculty.