Paul Canfield
Ames Laboratory, Iowa State University, USA
Date
6 April 2011
Host
Bertram Batlogg & Hugo Keller
Title
A Practical Guide to Discovering New Materials
Abstract
The design, discovery, characterization and control of novel materials is perhaps the most important research area for humanity as it moves into the 21rst century. A myriad of societal problems concerning energy, clear water and air, and medicine all need to be solved by the discovery of new compounds with dramatically improved, or even new, properties. The search for such materials requires a blending of skills and mind sets that, traditionally, have been segregated into different academic disciplines: physics, chemistry, metallurgy, materials science. In this lecture I will outline the basic philosophy and techniques that we use to search for novel materials. These include a combination of intuition, experience, compulsive optimism and a desire to share discovery. In the second half of the lecture, the specific case of superconductivity will be used as an example of one specific such search.