 
 
Nanostructured Materials Research
The sequence of pictures shown above represent a Lithium-4 cluster in various
stages of oscillation. It's
symmetric and non-symmetric meta-stable states have different magnetic
properties so that it is a simple example of a molecular-level memory device. We
show it here because three of our department faculty members, Professors Jena,
Khanna, and Rao,
have been heavily involved in this area of research and originated the idea of
using the Li4 cluster as a molecular switch. Our department has organized and hosted
four major international conferences
on atomic clusters and related areas in the past 10 years. Dr. Jena was the
founding director of the Consortium
for Nanostructured Materials, an international collaborative venture which
involves more than thirty universities and corporations. The purpose of the
collaboration is to promote and facilitate cooperative and multi-disciplinary
research leading to the synthesis, characterization, and fundamental
understanding of atomically engineered and nanostructured materials. The
consortium fosters collaborative research among universities, industries, and
government laboratories. The picture below is a schematic representation of
how clusters deposited on a surface may look like. Such material are expected to
have unusual combination of properties and are being sought experimentally.
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