Research reveals how material defects influence melting process
Monday, June 15, 2020 - 12:10
in Physics & Chemistry
In 1972, physicists J. Michael Kosterlitz and David Thouless published a groundbreaking theory of how phase changes could occur in two-dimensional materials. Experiments soon showed that the theory correctly captured the process of a helium film transitioning from a superfluid to a normal fluid, helping to usher in a new era of research on ultra-thin materials, not to mention earning Kosterlitz, a professor at Brown University, and Thouless shares of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics.