The Molecular Designing of Materials and Devices

"Nature designs everything from atoms; hence, we should be able to create any feasible kind of material and device with foresight, if we understood the Periodic System in all its implications. Yet-like weather forecasters-we find ourselves still members of the gambling profession." This was the tenor of the third summer session on modern materials research sponsored by the Laboratory for Insulation Research at MIT in 1963. Its program-organized by Arthur R. von Hippel, Institute Professor and one of the pioneers of modern materials research-ranged from the electronic structure of atoms and molecules to the design patterns and operating mechanisms of living systems. The participants came from a gamut of professions and the course seemed threatened by a confusion of tongues; instead, the two weeks of learning and debating proved so full of interest and enjoyment that the majority of the lecturers voted for a joint publication of their contributions. Thus this volume on The Molecular Designing of Materials and Devices joins its three predecessors (Dielectrics and Waves, Dielectric Materials and Applications, and Molecular Science and Molecular Engineering), already established as classics in their fields. This volume advances its theme in three stages: from the architecture of materials to the properties produced by structures and compositions and to the devices employing such properties with increasing sophistication. Since this vast panorama is conjured by twenty-five experts with highly individual outlooks, an extensive sruvey traces the problems and thoughts that connect chapter to chapter. The text is supported by a great number of illustrations, and a comprehensive index gives additional unity and long-range usefulness to the presentation. Contributors Ali S. Argon, David J. Epstein, John B. Goodenough, Shinya Inoue Thomas A. Kaplan, Hendrik A. Kasens, Helen D. Megaw, Erwin W. M? Heinz Raether, Gert W. Rathenau, Albert Rose, Murray D. Rosenberg, Walter A. Rosenblith, Heinz Schlicke, Francis O. Schmitt, James H. Schulman, John C. Slater, Alexander Smakula, Edward V. Somers, S. Donald Stookey, Morris Tanenbaum, Albert von Engel, Arthur von Hippel, Carl Wagner, Herbert Zeiger, and Clarence Zener