New Materials Physics

TL;DR

This review provides a comprehensive overview of New Materials Physics, emphasizing techniques for designing and growing new materials, and discusses strategies for discovering new compounds and ground states to inspire researchers.

Contribution

It offers a detailed survey of ideas, techniques, and motivational strategies for the design, growth, and discovery of new materials and their ground states.

Findings

Use of compositional phase diagrams to guide crystal growth

Strategies for generating actionable ideas for new materials

Examples illustrating motivations for material discovery

Abstract

This review presents a survey of, and guide to, New Materials Physics research. It begins with an overview of the goals of New Materials Physics and then presents important ideas and techniques for the design and growth of new materials. An emphasis is placed on the use of compositional phase diagrams to inform and motivate solution growth of single crystals. The second half of this review focuses on the vital process of generating actionable ideas for the growth and discovery of new materials and ground states. Motivations ranging from (1) wanting a specific compound, to (2) wanting a specific ground state to (3) wanting to explore for known and unknown unknowns, will be discussed and illustrated with abundant examples. The goal of this review is to inform, inspire, an even entertain, as many practitioners of this field as possible.