Two Sample Paragraphs on Departmental Research

The properties of materials -- plastic bags to turbine engine blades -- are "tuned" to meet special requirements. This tuning often involves adding or controlling defects, conventionally through extensive experimental "trial and error" to achieve success. Theoretical simulations can speed this tuning process by quickly identifying a likely experimental path. The picture displays the effect of adding two extra silicon atoms -- called interstitial atoms -- to a perfect silicon crystal. That there are two extra atoms can be seen by mentally removing two of the the three red atoms forming the central triangle; the remaining red atoms relax to a plane aligned with the green plane underneath. This two-interstitial cluster can move easily through the crystal forming even larger clusters (see second picture). The theoretical effort here is to quickly identify the moving di-interstitials. Three such di-interstitial patterns were selected automatically out of a 100,000 time-step stimulation. Such quick pattern identification is an important step in winnowing down the experimental route to tuning a material for effective use, in this case a computer chip. -