There is a chasm between finding a material that has a desirable property that is key to a technological application and producing a commercial product. In the hype about materials research, the width of this chasm is too often glossed over.
The Structure of Materials by Samuel M. Allen and Edwin L. Thomas (based on a course in Materials Science and Engineering at MIT) introduces the tetrahedron of
structure, properties, processing, and performance. In condensed matter physics the focus is largely on the relationship between structure and properties. But, for engineering, these are both also related to performance and processing (i.e. ability to make materials and devices).
The book also emphasises the multiple length scales associated with the structure of "real" materials. The scales range from the atomic scale of Angstroms to the scale of micrometers associated with objects such as grain boundaries, topological defects, and domain walls. These longer length scales are also relevant in liquid crystals, glasses, and polymers.
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