image: Winners of of the 2021 APL Materials Excellence in Research Award: Matthew Barone, Chao Zhou, and Jan Rieck view more
Credit: Matthew Barone, Chao Zhou, and Jan Rieck
MELVILLE, N.Y., November 29, 2021 -- AIP Publishing is pleased to announce the winners of the 2021 APL Materials Excellence in Research Award, who were selected for their work on crystal growth, bulk metallic glasses, and memristive devices. As a distinction for young researchers, the award is given to authors who publish exceptional science in the journal and are under 40 years of age.
First place, which includes a $5,000 prize, was awarded to Matthew Barone, of Cornell University, for his publication, "Improved control of atomic layering in perovskite-related homologous series."
Barone and his team developed a method to precisely measure and refine the distance between layers in a crystal. The researchers employed the technique to create a crystal that had never been grown before, and they continue to use it to study the properties of that very crystal. While not applicable to all crystal growth, the process can significantly improve crystal quality in many cases.
Chao Zhou, of Yale University, will be awarded $2,500 for his second-place article, "Atomic imprinting in the absence of an intrinsic length scale."
Zhou and his team investigated bulk metallic glasses (BMG), a material that combines the strength of steel at room temperature and the flexibility of plastic at higher temperatures. Using a technique called thermoplastic forming to shape BMG, they replicated surface structures with subangstrom precision. The process allows for fundamental studies of glass properties and behavior.
Jan Rieck, currently with the University of Groningen, Netherlands, won third place with his paper, "Trade-off between variability and retention of memristive epitaxial SrTiO3 devices," which was written while he was working at the Forschungszentrum Juelich in Germany.
Rieck and fellow researchers produced and characterized several sets of memristive devices, which are electrical resistance switches that can store and process information. These abilities make the devices attractive for potential novel hardware, which is crucial considering the increasing energy consumption in information technology. By examining variability and retention, which are essential device characteristics, they found optimizing one is detrimental to the other.
All three winners will receive waived charges for a 2022 article in APL Materials. The winning research will be highlighted on the APL Materials webpage and shared with the materials science community via email and social media.
Entries for the 2022 APL Materials Excellence in Research Award are now being accepted. Eligibility and other details are available on the APL Materials website.
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The article "Improved control of atomic layering in perovskite-related homologous series" is authored by Matthew R. Barone, Natalie M. Dawley, Hari P. Nair, Berit H. Goodge, Megan E. Holtz, Arsen Soukiassian, Erin E. Fleck, Kiyoung Lee, Yunfa Jia, Tassilo Heeg, Refael Gatt, Yuefeng Nie, David A. Muller, Lena F. Kourkoutis, and Darrell G. Schlom. The article was published in APL Materials on Feb. 17, 2021 (DOI: 10.1063/5.0036087) and can be accessed at https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0036087.
The article "Atomic imprinting in the absence of an intrinsic length scale" is authored by Chao Zhou, Amit Datye, Zheng Chen, Georg H. Simon, Xinzhe Wang, Jan Schroers, and Udo D. Schwar. The article was published in APL Materials on Nov. 4, 2020 (DOI: 10.1063/5.0027982) and can be accessed at https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0027982.
The article "Trade-off between variability and retention of memristive epitaxial SrTiO3 devices" is authored by Jan L. Rieck, Felix V. E. Hensling, and Regina Dittmann. The article was published in APL Materials on Feb. 5, 2021 (DOI: 10.1063/5.0035707) and can be accessed at https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0035707.
ABOUT THE JOURNAL
APL Materials is an open access journal that features original research on significant topical issues within all areas of materials science. See https://aip.scitation.org/journal/apm.
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