Structure-Property Relationships of Oxide Surfaces and Interfaces

Computer modeling has reached a new level of sophistication, where it can be used to predict the structure and energy of interfaces in oxides. Nowhere is this activity more important than in these ceramic materials, where more applications are being discovered but the fundamental properties are often poorly known or not known at all. As more multicomponent oxides are exploited for their novel properties, both the experimentalist and the modeler will be challenged to predict or explain the behavior of these materials under a wide range of conditions. This book focuses on the interfaces of oxide-based materials. The areas of composite materials, materials synthesis, microscopy, defect chemistry and structure, nanomaterials technologies, thin-film synthesis and characterization, computer modeling, structural characterization and properties measurement of surfaces and internal interfaces are featured together with advances in computer modeling of oxide interfaces. A series on structural characterization of surfaces and interfaces utilizing advanced microscopic techniques is also provided, as is a series on the measurement of properties of real interfaces (diffusion, mechanical, electrical and magnetic).