1. Ultrastable Nanostructured Polymer Glasses by Matrix Assisted Pulsed Laser EvaporationNaiPhuanOng, Princeton University, DMR 0819860 SEED: R. D. Priestley and C.B. ArnoldPrinceton Center for Complex Materials (PCCM) Glasses have a liquid-like structure, solid-like strength, and unlike crystalline materials are usually spatially homogeneous. The structural homogeneity of glasses is a basis for their widespread use in optics, displays and solar cells. The properties of glasses depend on the route to which they enter the vitreous state. However, from a practical viewpoint, materials engineers are only able to tune key material properties by insignificant levels using standard processing methods. Using a state-of-art laser processing method, PCCM researchers have been able to form glasses with tremendous tunability in key material properties. More importantly, the combination of material properties that they are able to engineer into the glasses, make them truly new and transformative materials. For instance, they are able to generate glasses with 40 K higher thermal stability, factor of 500 improvement in kinetic stability but 40 % reduction in density. The glasses have a novel nanostructure morphology (see image) comprised of nearly spherical nanoglobubles, but are still optically transparent. References: Y. Guoet al., Ultra-Stable Nanostructured Polymer Glasses, Nature Materials, DOI:10.1038/nmat3234. K. Shepard et al., Nanostructured Morphology of Polymer Films Prepared by Matrix Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation, Applied Physics A, in press.