Interface Structure Data Bank
The importance of interfaces in determining material behavior continues to be increasingly recognized, especially with regard to nanocrystalline metals and the MEMS industry. Despite a growing international research effort focused on various interface properties, research is hindered due to the fact that the equilibrium atomic structure of an interface must be identified before characterization can commence. In many cases, this has led to an overlap of efforts. A route towards overcoming this inefficiency is to following the example of the biological community’s protein structure databank (PDB)(http://www.wwpdb.org). The PDB allows researchers to easily share the atomic structures of proteins. Analogously, a web-based interface structure databank is currently being created that will allow researchers to easily share their knowledge of interface structures. Such a database will serve to aid those researchers who are presently involved in the characterization of the mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties of interfaces, and it will enable new research groups interested in interface properties to easily join the ongoing characterization campaign.