Harvesting energy directly from sunlight using photovoltaic technology is a way to address growing global energy needs with a renewable resource while minimizing detrimental effects on the environment by reducing atmospheric emissions. This issue of MRS Bulletin on “Organic-Based Photovoltaics” looks at a new generation of solar cells that have the potential to be produced inexpensively. Recent advances in solar power conversion efficiencies have propelled organic-based photovoltaics out of the realm of strictly fundamental research at the university level and into the industrial laboratory setting. Fabricated from organic materials—polymers and molecules—these devices are potentially easier to manufacture than current technologies based on silicon or other materials. In this introductory article, we describe the motivation for pursuing research in this field and provide an overview of the various technical approaches that have been developed to date.We conclude by discussing the challenges that need to be overcome in order for organic photovoltaics to realize their potential as an economically viable path to harvesting energy from sunlight.

The following article is based on the Outstanding Young Investigator Award presentation given by Peidong Yang of the University of California, Berkeley, on April 14, 2004, at the Materials Research Society Spring Meeting in San Francisco.Yang was cited for “innovative synthesis of a broad range of nanowires and nanowireheterostructure materials, and the discovery of optically induced lasing in individual nanowire devices.” One-dimensional nanostructures are of both fundamental and technological interest.They not only exhibit interesting electronic and optical properties associated with their low dimensionality and the quantum confinement effect, but they also represent critical components in potential nanoscale devices. In this article, the vapor–liquid–solid crystal growth mechanism will be briefly introduced for the general synthesis of nanowires of different compositions, sizes, and orientation. Unique properties, including light-emission and thermoelectricity, will be discussed. In addition to the recent extensive studies on “single-component” nanowires, of increasing importance is incorporating different interfaces and controlling doping profiles within individual single-crystalline nanowires. Epitaxial growth plays a significant role in fabricating such nanowire heterostructures. Recent research on superlattice nanowires and other nanostructures with horizontal junctions will be presented. The implication of these heterojunction nanowires in light-emission and energy conversion will be discussed. Ways to assemble these one-dimensional nanostructures will also be presented.

The articles in this issue of MRS Bulletin highlight the enormous potential of fuel cells for generating electricity using multiple fuels and crossing a wide range of applications. Fuel cells convert chemical energy directly into electrical energy, and as a powergeneration module, they can be viewed as a continuously operating battery.They take in air (or pure oxygen, for aerospace or undersea applications) and hydrocarbon or hydrogen fuel to produce direct current at various outputs. The electrical output can be converted and then connected to motors to generate much cleaner and more fuelefficient power than is possible from internal combustion engines, even when combined with electrical generators in today's hybrid engines. The commercialization of these fuel cell technologies is contingent upon additional advances in materials science that will suit the aggressive electrochemical environment of fuel cells (i.e., both reducing an oxidizing) and provide ionic and electrical conductance for thousands of hours of operation.

The synthesis of materials via self-assembly typically involves the spontaneous and reversible organization of small building blocks for the purpose of creating conglomerate structures over larger length scales. This introductory article describes self-assembly processes on several length scales, from subnanometer up to millimeter scales, and briefly summarizes some of the incredible diversity of materials that exhibit selfassembly. Articles in this issue cover self-assembly using zeolitic structures, organic molecular crystals, block copolymers, surfactants, mesoscale templates, and soluble crystallization additives. Keywords: block copolymers, materials synthesis, self-assembly, surfactants, templates, zeolites.

This article is based on the 2004 Von Hippel Award address by Nick Holonyak Jr. (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). Holonyak received the award for “his many contributions to research and development in the field of semiconductors, not least for the first development of semiconductor lasers in the useful visible portion of the optical spectrum.” The talk was presented on Holonyak's behalf by Russell Dupuis on December 1, 2004, at the Materials Research Society Fall Meeting in Boston.

With the discovery of the transistor by Bardeen and Brattain in 1947, and as a consequence of carrier injection and collection, the hole indeed became equal to the electron. The semiconductor took on new importance, as did the study of electron–hole recombination, first in the transistor materials Ge and Si, and then in III–V crystals (e.g., GaAs and GaP). Beyond Si and its indirect-gap and heterojunction limitations, the directgap III–V materials, particularly III–V alloys, made possible lasers and light-emitting diodes (LEDs)—and thus optoelectronics.

The direct-gap III–V alloy LED after four decades of development exceeds in performance the incandescent lamp (as well as other forms of lamps) in much of the visible range. Beyond growing display applications, it has put conventional lighting under longrange threat with a semiconductor lamp—an “ultimate lamp” that promises unusual performance and energy savings. In principle, the LED or laser, basically a p–n junction, is an ultimate lamp that cannot be exceeded.

For the last four decades, the feature sizes of electronic devices for computers have been reduced by a factor of two roughly every 18 months. The result has been a tremendous increase in computational power and reduction in the cost of computing, as measured by cost per function, of nearly 30% annually, so that computations can be done for a billionth of the cost of using the technology of the 1950s. However, devices will soon be so small that the current technology used to produce them will have reached its limits, and the graininess of individual atoms will affect their behavior. This issue focuses on techniques to make tiny devices with dimensions under 45 nm (45 billionths of a meter) for the next generation of devices.Techniques start with coupling currently used 193-nm and 157-nm optical lithography with liquid immersion to reduce the effective wavelength. Other techniques include microprinting, self-assembly, templating, and using supercritical fluids to avoid the effects of surface tension while enabling solution-based processing at such small dimensions. The development of three-dimensional structures that are approaching this scale is also discussed.The methods presented will have an effect on many areas of technology, including, in addition to electronics, advanced sensor technology, energy conversion, catalysis, and nanoelectromechanical systems.

The interaction of light with free electrons in a gold or silver nanostructure can give rise to collective excitations commonly known as surface plasmons. Plasmons provide a powerful means of confining light to metal/dielectric interfaces, which in turn can generate intense local electromagnetic fields and significantly amplify the signal derived from analytical techniques that rely on light, such as Raman scattering. With plasmons, photonic signals can be manipulated on the nanoscale, enabling integration with electronics (which is now moving into the nano regime). However, to benefit from their interesting plasmonic properties, metal structures of controlled shape (and size) must be fabricated on the nanoscale. This issue of MRS Bulletin examines how gold and silver nanostructures can be prepared with controllable shapes to tailor their surface plasmon resonances and highlights some of the unique applications that result, including enhancement of electromagnetic fields, optical imaging, light transmission, colorimetric sensing, and nanoscale waveguiding.

Biointerface science, defined as the study and control of biomolecular interactions at surfaces, is a critical component of many aspects of biotechnology, but it has only recently begun to attract the attention it deserves as a unique interdisciplinary research area. This issue of MRS Bulletin explores the rich diversity of function provided by biomolecules at interfaces and the unparalleled opportunities for applications, which range from clinical diagnostics, biomaterials, and tissue engineering to genomics and proteomics. This diversity will continue to drive the evolution of biointerface science.

After substantial investment in research and development over the last decade, silicon carbide materials and devices are coming of age. The concerted efforts that made this possible have resulted in breakthroughs in our understanding of materials issues such as compensation mechanisms in high-purity crystals, dislocation properties, and the formation of SiC/SiO2 interfaces, as well as device design and processing. The progress accomplished over the last eight years in SiC-based electronic materials is summarized in this issue of MRS Bulletin.

In the study of matter, both living and inanimate, the breakthrough discoveries and most scientists' intellectual obsessions often flow from what we call emergent behavior: phenomena not readily predictable from a detailed knowledge of the material subunits alone. We call systems that display emergent behavior complex adaptive matter, and their relevant organizing principles are unique to their scales of length and time. This issue of MRS Bulletin provides an overview of the aggregate of research on complex adaptive matter through a survey of five examples, ranging from intrinsically disordered electron matter in high-temperature superconductors to protein aggregates in amyloid diseases like Alzheimer's. We explain the philosophy and motivation for this research, noting that the study of emergent phenomena complements a globally reductionist scientific approach by seeking to identify, with intellectual precision, the relevant organizing principles governing the behavior. Our authors focus on the character of emergence for their particular systems, the role of materials research approaches to the problems, and the efforts to identify the organizing principles at work.

This article introduces the November 2005 issue of MRS Bulletin on the life and works of Arthur Robert von Hippel, who pioneered the interdisciplinary approach to materials research. This issue of MRS Bulletin celebrates his long life, his large volume of work, and the overall impact he had on materials research as practiced today. This introductory article summarizes the start and progression of the various fields presented in this issue, and how many were inspired directly by von Hippel's work and ways, and how new fields continue to emerge based on the same foundations of interdisciplinarity. The articles in this issue cover research areas in which von Hippel was involved, namely, ferroelectrics and magnetism; fields that thrived on an interdisciplinary approach that von Hippel represented, such as semiconductors; and areas that reflect his own vision about materials research and interests later in life, including molecular design and biomaterials. Before the scientific work is presented, the issue begins with a personal sketch of von Hippel, contributed by his son Frank N. von Hippel.

The concept of using an ion-exchange membrane as an electrolyte separator for polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells was first reported by General Electric in 1955. However, a real breakthrough in PEM fuel cell technology occurred in the mid-1960s after DuPont introduced Nafion®, a perfluorosulfonic acid membrane. Due to their inherent chemical, thermal, and oxidative stability, perfluorosulfonic acid membranes displaced unstable polystyrene sulfonic acid membranes.Today, Nafion® and other related perfluorosulfonic acid membranes are considered to be the state of the art for PEM fuel cell technology. Although perfluorosulfonic acid membrane structures are preferred today, structural improvements are still needed to accommodate the increasing demands of fuel cell systems for specific applications. Higher performance, lower cost, greater durability, better water management, the ability to perform at higher temperatures, and flexibility in operating with a wide range of fuels are some of the challenges that need to be overcome before widespread commercial adoption of the technology can be realized. The present article will highlight the membrane properties relevant to PEM fuel cell systems, the development history of perfluorosulfonic acid membranes, and the current status of R&D activities in PEM technology.

Crystalline materials made from molecular components can possess useful properties that can be tailored through judicious selection of their molecular building blocks.The utility of these materials, however, depends on molecular packing in the crystal lattice as well as the properties of the individual molecules themselves. Consequently, further advances hinge on our ability to manipulate solid-state structure in a rational and systematic manner. Although computational prediction of crystal structure remains elusive, empirical guidelines for assembling molecules into preordained crystal architectures are emerging rapidly. This article briefly describes the current state of the field, emphasizing the design of crystalline materials with structures reinforced by a twodimensional hydrogen-bonded network, which serves as a platform for the synthesis of a diverse collection of compounds. These include host frameworks with cavities supported by organic “pillars” that can be interchanged to manipulate the size, shape, and character of the inclusion cavities as well as the overall lattice architecture and metrics. This research has revealed some principles for crystal design that may prove useful in general while enabling exploration of the utility of these compounds.

Optical lithography at ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths is the standard process for patterning 90-nm state-of-the-art devices in the semiconductor industry, and extensions to 45 nm and below are currently being explored. With such high resolution, the inherent high throughput of optical lithography will enable the development of a broad range of applications beyond semiconductor electronics. In this article, we will review progress toward nanopatterning with UV light in a variety of materials and geometries.The common thread is the use of short wavelengths, 193 nm or 157 nm, coupled with immersion to further reduce the effective wavelength. Densely spaced, 32-nm (and even smaller) features have been patterned, facilitating the future preparation of large-area, deeply scaled microelectronics, nanophotonics, nanobiology, and molecular-scale self-assembly.

“Soft” condensed-matter science (also known as colloid chemistry) has revealed the nearly zoological complexity of long-lived structures that can arise from the competing interactions working in concert with thermal fluctuations both near and far from equilibrium. “Hard” condensed-matter science has revealed the stark beauty of elementary excitations shimmering on a placid quantum Fermi sea. The study of strongly correlated electronic states of matter is forcing us to unify these often disparate branches of materials science. Explaining confusing phenomena occurring in high-temperature superconductors and related materials seems to require that long-lived electronic structures be generated largely on their own, but perhaps with a little help from lattice disorder.We will explain the fruitful analogy between such systems and classical colloidal systems such as mayonnaise. Ordered crystalline, striped, or checkerboard phases and striped glasses emerge as candidate forms of highly correlated matter that may explain many puzzling observations of electronic materials.

One-dimensional metallic nanostructures such as nanorods and nanowires are of tremendous interest for electronic, sensing, and catalytic applications. Shape anisotropy introduces new optical properties in gold and silver nanoparticles, such as longitudinal plasmon resonance bands in the visible and near-IR portion of the spectrum. Different approaches employed for the shape-controlled synthesis of silver and gold nanocrystals include chemical, electrochemical, and physical methods. The chemical route for the synthesis of nanorods and nanowires, in which metal salts are reduced in an aqueous solution, is one of the most widely used methods. This route commonly employs a surfactant as the directing agent to introduce asymmetry in the nanocrystal shape. Variation in the concentration of precursor salt and the surfactant, the nature of the surfactant, the nature and concentration of reducing agents, the presence of external salts, and the pH of the reaction solution all affect nanocrystal shape, dimension, and yield. The size and shape of the nanocrystals affect the position of the plasmon bands, which in turn has been widely used in surface-enhanced spectroscopies that include both Raman and fluorescence. The aqueous, surfactant-directed route also promises the synthesis of more complex nanostructures with additional desirable properties.

“We will not be intimidated!” is one of the mottos Arthur R. von Hippel lived by. From refusing to salute Hitler to starting a unique interdisciplinary university laboratory–the Laboratory for Insulation Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology–von Hippel followed his principles, laying the foundations for modern materials research and distinguishing himself as a pioneering scientist, an inspirational mentor, and a devoted family man. This article shows the personal and professional contexts within which von Hippel–the namesake of the Materials Research Society's highest award–emerged as a scientific leader and role model of interdisciplinarity, as seen through the eyes of his son, Frank N. von Hippel, physicist, professor of public and international affairs, and co-director of the Program on Science & Global Security at Princeton University.

We discuss continuing materials technology improvements that have transformed silicon carbide from an intriguing laboratory material into a premier manufacturable semiconductor technology. This advancement is demonstrated by reduced micropipe densities as low as 0.22 cm−2 on 3-in.-diameter conductive wafers and 16 cm−2 on 100-mm-diameter conductive wafers. For high-purity semi-insulating materials, we confirm that the carbon vacancy is the dominant deep-level trapping state, and we report very consistent cross-wafer activation energies derived from temperature-dependent resistivity.Warm-wall and hot-wall SiC epitaxy platforms are discussed in terms of capability and applications. Specific procedures that essentially eliminate forward-voltage drift in bipolar SiC devices are presented in detail.

The development of dynamic substrates that can modulate the behavior of adherent cells is important for fundamental studies in cell biology, applications in biomaterials, and engineering microsystems that combine cellular and material components. This review outlines several strategies based on physical transduction schemes (including electrical, photochemical, thermal, and mechanical forces) for designing interfaces that are active and can signal changes in the behavior of attached cells.