Material science builds infrastructural foundation for innovative developments, the success of which depends on the implementation of theoretical models and concepts in real-world technologies. Previous GRCs in this series aimed to understand and explore fundamentals of various emergent phenomena related to conductivity and magnetism (2014) and emphasized functional aspects of molecular materials (2016). This GRC meeting aims to provide a forum for innovative progress in science and technology of molecular materials by enabling new cutting-edge technologies through fundamental research. Electrons, the main players in functional materials, have two degrees of freedom, spin and charge, which are responsible for magnetism and conductivity, respectively. Making these degrees of freedom integrated, emergent, and synergetic is a key to innovation in molecule-based materials and devices.
Precise synthetic tunability affords control over structural and orbital degrees of freedom in a molecule, enabling one to design and construct materials with targeted properties in a truly bottom-up fashion. Exploiting these features of molecular materials has led to tremendous breakthroughs in recent years. The discovery of single-molecule magnets opened up a new realm in magnetism, leading to novel quantum manifestation of magnets linking to nanotechnology and quantum information through offering molecular platforms of Q-bits. The studies of materials hosting both localized spins and itinerant charge carriers boosted innovative ideas in molecular spintronic devices. The physics of strongly correlated electrons and unconventional superconductivity has stimulated the development of a novel class of devices such as Mott-FET and superconducting FET. As such, the basic studies of molecular materials have been followed by the highly innovative application ideas.
The upcoming GRC aims to boost this foundations-to-applications stream of research by bringing together physicists and chemists engaged in fundamental and applied molecular sciences. The topics will include: strongly correlated systems and emergent phenomena; superconductivity under extreme conditions; conducting and superconducting interface devices; topological and chiral materials; new aspects in magnetism and switching; molecular spintronics; molecular qubits and quantum technologies; advanced measurements; and novel materials, functionalities, and ideas.