MRSEC Inaugurates NYC High School Visit Program

In October, 1999 Professor Siu-Wai Chan began a new MRSEC outreach program that brings the excitement of materials science and engineering to high school students in NYC. In each visit, a team of Columbia students introduces the high school students to the world of materials through exciting demonstrations. Several high schools have already been visited. High School Visit Program

Leader of Shared Facilities and Clean Room Begins MRSEC Post

In October, 1999 Erik Henriksen started his position as the supervisor of the MRSEC Shared Instrument complex and the supervisor and operator of the MRSEC-affiliated clean room. Erik, a graduate of Swarthmore College with a B.A. in physics, brings to our program experience in maintaining a nanofabrication facility. Instrumentation and User Facilities

MRSEC REU Effort Runs its Inaugural Summer Program

The first Columbia MRSEC Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program ran from June - August, 1999, with 13 entering sophomores, juniors and seniors from across the country. In addition to working closely with MRSEC faculty in diverse research areas in materials science and engineering, the REU students attended a special seminar series organized for them, visited local industrial and government laboratories, and learned how to present their research results for a special REU symposium at the end of the summer. REU program

NYC High School Teachers Participate in MRSEC Summer Research

The Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program enabled four K-12 teachers to do research with MRSEC faculty during the summer of 1999. These teachers also helped us evaluate the education and outreach programs we are developing to help the MRSEC spread interest in to NYC K-12 schools. Our RET program was run in conjunction with the Columbia University Summer Research Program for NYC Science Teachers, which enriched our program with career development training for the teachers. Education and Outreach

New Electron Microscopy Facility Established

The new Electron Microscopy Facility became fully operational in May, 1999, and is now available for use by MRSEC members and others. This is a joint venture of the MRSEC, the Henry Krumb School of Mines, and the Department of Civil Engineering. The JEOL JSM-5600 LV scanning electron microscope (SEM) and a Philips 430 transmission electron microscope (TEM) are both located in the Seely W. Mudd Building. Shared Facilities

New Joint MRSEC/IBM Postdoctoral Scientists Joins Us

In May, 1999, Stephen O'Brien joined the MRSEC as a postdoctoral scientist linking our IRG research efforts at Columbia, led by Louis Brus, and those of one of our industrial collaborators, Christopher Murray of IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. Dr. O'Brien will work on novel approaches to nanoparticle synthesis.

Codenoll Makes a Generous Equipment Donation to the MRSEC

In May, 1999, Codenoll Technology Corporation. generously donated equipment to the MRSEC Shared Facilities Laboratory and the MRESC-affiliated Clean Room. Included in this donation were thin film processing tools for film deposition, epitaxy, and photolithography. Shared Facilities

Spectroscopic Ellipsometer Ordered for the MRSEC Shared Facilities

The MRSEC has placed an order for a Beaglehole Image-enhanced Spectroscopic Ellipsometer, which consists of a Spectroscopic Picometer and an Imaging Ellipsometer that can operate simultaneously on the same sample. The Spectroscopic Ellipsometer can operate from 200-1100 nm and has a sensitivity of 0.001 degrees in the ellipsometer angles delta and psi in a 1 sec integration time. The Imaging Ellipsometer can image a 2 mm x 2 mm area, with a sensitivity of 0.1 degrees in the ellipsometer angles delta and psi in a 1 sec integration time. This provides a maximum lateral spatial resolution of 3 micrometers within the spectral bandwidth of the chosen transmission filter. Specific regions in the images obtained with the Imaging Ellipsometer can then be studied in more detail with the Picometer Ellipsometer. The ellipsometer system will be installed in the MRSEC Shared Facilities Laboratory by Fall, 1999. Shared Facilities

Horst Stormer Shares the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics

Horst Stormer, professor of physics and applied physics at Columbia University and adjunct director of physical sciences at Bell Laboratories, a unit of Lucent Technologies Corp., in Murray Hill, N.J., has shared the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the motion of electrons in ultrathin layers of semiconductors. Stormer was honored with Daniel Tsui, a professor at Princeton, for discovering a phenomenon known as the fractional quantum Hall effect, and with Robert B. Laughlin, a professor at Stanford, for restating the theoretical explanation of this achievement as a simple equation. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited their discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations. They shared the $978,000 prize that was presented Dec. 10, 1998.

Stormer and Tsui discovered the fractional quantum Hall effect in 1982. At temperatures that approach absolute zero and in strong magnetic fields, the electron appears to break up into three identical quasi-particles, each with a fractional charge. However, this event takes place not because the electron disintegrates, but because the motion of many electrons together generate quasi-particles in their midst. Within a year, Laughlin succeeded in explaining their result, showing that electrons in powerful magnetic fields can condense to form quantum fluids, related to the superfluids that occur in superconductors and liquid helium.

Stormer, born in Frankfurt in 1949, earned his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Stuttgart in 1977, and in that year joined AT&T Bell Laboratories. He accepted a joint appointment in Columbia's Department of Physics and the Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics on Jan. 1, 1998. He won the American Physical Society's prestigious Oliver E. Buckley Prize in Condensed Matter Physics in 1984. Stormer was awarded the Franklin Institute Medal in Physics with Dr. Tsui and Dr. Laughlin, for the same work that won the Nobel, on April 30, 1998 in Philadelphia. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and National Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Professor Stormer is a member of the Columbia MRSEC, and is active in the Center shared facilities and seed funding efforts.