BNL Physics Timeline Current Research Areas Brookhaven Soft
Condensed Matter Physics A subset of condensed matter, soft
matter encompasses polymers, certain types of organic and
biological matter, liquid crystals, and other self-assembled
organic materials. These systems often have structural order
that is intermediate between normal solids and liquids. The
underlying physics and behavior of these materials is relevant
to developing improved electronic displays, molecular
electronics (tiny circuits based on single molecules), and novel
biomaterials. An example of this research is the study of
“surface freezing,” the phenomenon by which the top molecular
layer of a material—as thin as a single molecular layer—freezes
at a temperature at which the underlying bulk remains liquid.
This is a surprising result because in most materials, the
opposite phenomenon, surface melting, is observed. Surface
freezing occurs in wax-like materials called alkanes, which are
composed of hydrocarbon molecules in simple linear cha