The resolution of many grand challenges facing society rests on the discovery of multifunctional materials with enhanced properties, many of which cannot be made using current techniques.  This thrust is developing novel synthesis and growth methods that exploit extreme conditions of high pressure, temperature, entropy, confinement, strain, and electromagnetic (laser) energy to produce metastable phases/forms of such materials.  The effort includes development of tools to monitor in situ and characterize growth under extreme conditions, and predictive models of the conditions that would allow access to desired phases.

Thrust members: