What is Materials Science?

Exploring known materials or enhancing their atomic structure to give them new properties is the work of materials scientists. This might be called the ``growth'' field of science because of its rapid advancements in R&D. It is considered by many to be a critical area for the future of our society.

A product of this discipline--Intel's 486 computer chip--provoked one of the most energetic upsurges in the stock market in recent memory during the winter of 1993. The chip's proficiency can be attributed to designers working closely with researchers in materials science. Yet today's 0.5-micron sized electronic components will be replaced with even smaller ones in the future- increasing the challenges facing materials scientists and engineers.

Tougher plastics, solutions to crack-formation in ceramics and metals, and better lubricants are some other results of materials science research. Sweden's clean, energy efficient levitating trains are another. Worldwide usage of such transportation could grow out of refinements in present day materials research.

Understanding the electronic structure of quantum materials requires intensive number crunching. The complexity of the resulting mathematics intrinsic to the discipline assures that high-performance computers and computational science are the primary tools of materials science. Knowledge base of the field is interdisciplinary--dovetailing chemistry, physics, and some aspects of engineering. Research, development, and productization are interconnected--seemingly more so than in other fields.

Researchers use the fundamental laws of quantum mechanics to predict the physical and chemical properties of elements and compounds. Developers and designers use computer simulations for modeling rather than traditional hands-on methods.

The theoretical foundation of materials science, quantum physics, emerged over the first quarter of this century when it became evident that the classical mechanics of Newtonian physics could not explain atomic structure. Deterministic theories--accepted for centuries--broke down when they were used to explain the strange behaviors of subatomic particles, x-rays, and similar elements of emerging scientific inquiry. Their attributes, or properties, defy traditional thought and solutions.

In 1900 the search for an answer to the quixotics of atomic structure began when German physicist Max Planck proposed that electromagnetic radiation comes in small bursts (or quanta) of energy. Five years later Albert Einstein postulated the photoelectric effect, which by 1916 was accepted in the growing experimentalist community. This discovery won him the Noble Prize in Physics in 1921.

Many other now-famous European physicists contributed to the theories of what came to be called the ``new physics''.

Using the model of the simplest atom, hydrogen, Neils Bohr (1913) formed the theory of atomic structure and developed what is sometimes referred to as the ``Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics.'' Werner Heisenberg, famous for his uncertainty principle of 1927, formulated what he called ``matrix mechanics'' (1925), and Erwin Schrdinger wrote the basic equation of electronic structure (1926). These were major, almost simultaneous breakthroughs in quantum theory. Schrdinger's equation still stands as the mathematical foundation of materials science.

Quantum mechanics brought the concepts of unpredictability, randomness, and probability into science at a fundamental level with these discoveries. The idea of duality--waves as particles, particles as waves--was part of this thought. At about the same time in many other fields-- philosophy, literature, and the arts, to name a few--new ideas were dramatically replacing traditional concepts.

Stephen Hawking summarizes what went on in science: ``The theory of quantum mechanics is based on an entirely new type of mathematics that no longer describes the real world in terms of particles and waves; it is only the observations of the world that may be described in those terms. There is thus a duality between waves and particles in quantum mechanics: for some purposes it is helpful to think of particles as waves and for other purposes it is better to think of waves as particles.'' According to Hawking-- and countless others concur--``it has been an outstandingly successful theory and underlies nearly all of modern science and technology.''

``It has been an outstandingly successful theory and underlies nearly all of modern science and technology.''

Today quantum theory governs the basics of chemistry, biology, and the physics that drives the development of essential electronic components as well as most physical sciences. In contemporary computational science, activity in applying the laws and theories of quantum mechanics seemingly is almost as vigorous as was the earlier search for its explanation. Twelve percent of NCSA's current users are materials scientists. Many of the problems materials scientists explore are listed among the Grand Challenges of computational research.

This research energy was jokingly likened to athletics by a scientist who equated the search in his area of expertise to that of a ``sporting event''--given a sudden growth in papers and meeting attendance. News of this competitive spirit even reaches the popular press--in the race for a better superconductor, for example.

As consumers, we may profit from today's scientific discoveries by using seemingly ``twenty-first century'' products that spin off from materials science research. It remains to be seen if superconducting levitating trains will run on time.

NOTE: Randall Graham contributed to this article.

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