Exceptional Microscale Plasticity in Amorphous Aluminum Oxide at Room Temperature.

Oxide glasses are an elementary group of materials in modern society, but brittleness limits their wider usability at room temperature. As an exception to the rule, amorphous aluminum oxide (a-Al O ) is a rare diatomic glassy material exhibiting significant nanoscale plasticity at room temperature. Here, it is shown experimentally that the room temperature plasticity of a-Al O extends to the microscale and high strain rates using in situ micropillar compression.

Evolutionary design of interfacial phase change van der Waals heterostructures.

We use an evolutionary algorithm to explore the design space of hexagonal GeSbTe; a van der Waals layered two dimensional crystal heterostructure. The GeSbTe structure is more complicated than previously thought. Predominant features include layers of GeSbTe and GeSbTe two dimensional crystals that interact through Te-Te van der Waals bonds.

Strain-engineered diffusive atomic switching in two-dimensional crystals.

Strain engineering is an emerging route for tuning the bandgap, carrier mobility, chemical reactivity and diffusivity of materials. Here we show how strain can be used to control atomic diffusion in van der Waals heterostructures of two-dimensional (2D) crystals. We use strain to increase the diffusivity of Ge and Te atoms that are confined to 5 Å thick 2D planes within an Sb2Te3-GeTe van der Waals superlattice.

Phase-Change Memory Materials by Design: A Strain Engineering Approach.

Van der Waals heterostructure superlattices of Sb2 Te1 and GeTe are strain-engineered to promote switchable atomic disordering, which is confined to the GeTe layer. Careful control of the strain in the structures presents a new degree of freedom to design the properties of functional superlattice structures for data storage and photonics applications.

Steered molecular dynamics simulations of ligand-receptor interaction in lipocalins.

Retinol binding protein (RBP) and an engineered lipocalin, DigA16, have been studied using molecular dynamics simulations. Special emphasis has been placed on explaining the ligand-receptor interaction in RBP-retinol and DigA16-digoxigenin complexes, and steered molecular dynamics simulations of 10-20 ns have been carried out for the ligand expulsion process. Digoxigenin is bound deep inside the cavity of DigA16 and forms several stable hydrogen bonds in addition to the hydrophobic van der Waals interaction with the aromatic side-chains.