Cornell scientists have developed a novel technique to transform symmetrical semiconductor particles into intricately twisted, spiral structures – or “chiral” materials – producing films with extraordinary light-bending properties.

The discovery, detailed in a paper publishing Jan. 31 in the journal Science, could revolutionize technologies that rely on controlling light polarization, such as displays, sensors and optical communications devices.

The Materials Solutions Network at CHESS (MSN-C) was leveraged to map strains using non-destructive x-ray methods not available at other USAF, Department of Defense, or private sector facilities. The high-flux and high-energy x-rays only available at a synchrotron light source, such as CHESS, enable a critical combination of high penetrating power, spatial resolution and measurement speed. This highlight is just one example of how MSN-C is permitting new, systematic studies of structural materials.

What did the scientists accomplish?

The challenge now is to efficiently use these expensive techniques - and the enormous datasets they produce - to better understand existing problems and gain insight into new phenomena that have been previously unreachable.

CHESS has been at the heart of this explosive growth, and will now develop new, efficient experimental and data processing protocols for using these techniques. 

"Drowning in Data"

What is the discovery?

When a master chef develops a new cake recipe, she doesn’t try every conceivable combination of ingredients to see which one works best. The chef uses prior baking knowledge and basic principles to more efficiently search for that winning formula.

Materials scientists use a similar method in searching for novel materials with unique properties in fields such as renewable energy and microelectronics. And a new artificial intelligence tool developed by Cornell researchers promises to rapidly explore and identify what it takes to “whip up” new materials.

What did the scientists do?

For two short days on the Cornell Campus, the students from around the country - including four students from Puerto Rico - were able to meet their mentors from CHESS and their peers from other community colleges and undergraduate institutions. Their trip to Cornell offered the opportunity to tour the CHESS facility, explore the Ithaca area, and present their summer projects to an audience of CHESS directors, graduate students, and their fellow summer research students. 

The experiment employed an AI-driven, fully autonomous infrastructure controlled  across campus from CHESS to direct the synthesis and characterization in combinatorial thin-film material processing. Using high-throughput, closed-loop robotics, new materials were synthesized through laser-annealing, analyzed with x-ray diffraction, and the resulting data was fed into a machine-learning model to propose the next best experiment.