Search Stories

MIT Associate Professor Joseph Checkelsky searches for new crystalline materials, known as “quantum materials,” capable of hosting exotic new quantum phenomena.

Finding the right quantum materials

Associate Professor Joseph Checkelsky wins $1.7 million Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems Initiative grant to pursue search for new crystalline materials.

May 5, 2020

This illustration shows the characteristic “sheriff star”-type pattern of the Fermi surface, or distribution of electron energy and momentum, for the kagome metal FeSn, a 1-to-1 ratio compound of iron and tin.

MIT researchers realize “ideal” kagome metal electronic structure

Newly synthesized compound of iron and tin atoms in 1-to-1 ratio displays unique behavior.

December 12, 2019

An MIT-invented circuit uses only a nanometer-wide “magnetic domain wall” to modulate the phase and magnitude of a spin wave, which could enable practical magnetic-based computing — using little to no electricity.

Toward more efficient computing, with magnetic waves

Circuit design offers a path to “spintronic” devices that use little electricity and generate practically no heat.

November 28, 2019

Eight distinguished researchers spoke at the 2019 Materials Day Symposium. Pictured here (l-r) are MIT professors Carl Thompson, Asu Ozdaglar, Elsa Olivetti, and Ju Li.

Materials Day talks examine the promises and challenges of AI and machine learning

The ability to predict and make new materials faster highlights the need for safety, reliability, and accurate data.

November 5, 2019

MIT physics graduate student Dahlia Klein (left) and postdoc David MacNeill showed that magnetic order and stacking order are very strongly linked in two-dimensional magnets such as chromium chloride and chromium iodide, giving engineers a tool to vary the material’s magnetic properties.

Controlling 2-D magnetism with stacking order

MIT researchers discover why magnetism in certain materials is different in atomically thin layers and their bulk forms.

September 30, 2019

A domain wall (gray panel at center) separates regions with different spin orientations (green and blue arrows). MIT researchers discovered that a magnetic field applied at one particular angle through a single crystal of a new magnetic quantum material makes it harder for electrons to cross this domain wall.

Approaching the magnetic singularity

MIT researchers discover a material that changes electrical resistance only when a magnetic field is applied at a narrowly confined angle.

June 20, 2019

Work by researchers in the group of MIT materials science and engineering Professor Geoffrey Beach and colleagues in California, Germany, Switzerland and Korea, was featured on the covers of <i>Nature Nanotechnology</i> and <i>Advanced Materials.</i>

Controllable fast, tiny magnetic bits

MIT researchers show how to make and drive nanoscale magnetic quasi-particles known as skyrmions for spintronic memory devices.

January 3, 2019

Illustration shows how hydrogen ions (red dots), controlled by an electric voltage, migrate through an intermediate material to change the magnetic properties of an adjacent magnetic layer(shown in green).

Study opens route to ultra-low-power microchips

Innovative approach to controlling magnetism could lead to next-generation memory and logic devices.

November 12, 2018

In two-dimensional tungsten ditelluride, two different states of matter — topological insulator and superconductor — can be chosen at will, MIT researchers discovered.

First two-dimensional material that performs as both topological insulator and superconductor

MIT researchers have demonstrated that a tungsten ditelluride-based transistor combines two different electronic states of matter.

October 31, 2018

The new MIT Materials Research Laboratory (MRL) will streamline the organization of materials research on campus and enhance collaboration, Vice President for Research Maria Zuber (center) says. To Zuber’s left is MRL Director Carl Thompson, the Stavros Salapatas Professor of Materials Science and Engineering. They are joined by newly named MRL Co-Director Geoffrey Beach, who is an associate pro...

Introducing the Materials Research Laboratory at MIT

Materials Processing Center, Center for Materials Science and Engineering merger brings together formidable resources for advancing next-generation materials.

October 10, 2017