Information Science For Materials Discovery And Design

This book deals with an information-driven approach to plan materials discovery and design, iterative learning. The authors present contrasting but complementary approaches, such as those based on high throughput calculations, combinatorial experiments or data driven discovery, together with machine-learning methods. Similarly, statistical methods successfully applied in other fields, such as biosciences, are presented. The content spans from materials science to information science to reflect the cross-disciplinary nature of the field. A perspective is presented that offers a paradigm (codesign loop for materials design) to involve iteratively learning from experiments and calculations to develop materials with optimum properties. Such a loop requires the elements of incorporating domain materials knowledge, a database of descriptors (the genes), a surrogate or statistical model developed to predict a given property with uncertainties, performing adaptive experimental design to guide the next experiment or calculation and aspects of high throughput calculations as well as experiments. The book is about manufacturing with the aim to halving the time to discover and design new materials. Accelerating discovery relies on using large databases, computation, and mathematics in the material sciences in a manner similar to the way used to in the Human Genome Initiative. Novel approaches are therefore called to explore the enormous phase space presented by complex materials and processes. To achieve the desired performance gains, a predictive capability is needed to guide experiments and computations in the most fruitful directions by reducing not successful trials. Despite advances in computation and experimental techniques, generating vast arrays of data; without a clear way of linkage to models, the full value of data driven discovery cannot be realized. Hence, along with experimental, theoretical and computational materials science, we need to add a “fourth leg’’ to our toolkit to make the “Materials Genome'' a reality, the science of Materials Informatics.

This book addresses the current status, challenges and future directions of data-driven materials discovery and design. It presents the analysis and learning from data as a key theme in many science and cyber related applications. The challenging open questions as well as future directions in the application of data science to materials problems are sketched. Computational and experimental facilities today generate vast amounts of data at an unprecedented rate. The book gives guidance to discover new knowledge that enables materials innovation to address grand challenges in energy, environment and security, the clearer link needed between the data from these facilities and the theory and underlying science. The role of inference and optimization methods in distilling the data and constraining predictions using insights and results from theory is key to achieving the desired goals of real time analysis and feedback. Thus, the importance of this book lies in emphasizing that the full value of knowledge driven discovery using data can only be realized by integrating statistical and information sciences with materials science, which is increasingly dependent on high throughput and large scale computational and experimental data gathering efforts. This is especially the case as we enter a new era of big data in materials science with the planning of future experimental facilities such as the Linac Coherent Light Source at Stanford (LCLS-II), the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (EXFEL) and MaRIE (Matter Radiation in Extremes), the signature concept facility from Los Alamos National Laboratory. These facilities are expected to generate hundreds of terabytes to several petabytes of in situ spatially and temporally resolved data per sample. The questions that then arise include how we can learn from the data to accelerate the processing and analysis of reconstructed microstructure, rapidly map spatially resolved properties from high throughput data, devise diagnostics for pattern detection, and guide experiments towards desired targeted properties. The authors are an interdisciplinary group of leading experts who bring the excitement of the nascent and rapidly emerging field of materials informatics to the reader.

Materials informatics: a ‘hot topic’ area in materials science, aims to combine traditionally bio-led informatics with computational methodologies, supporting more efficient research by identifying strategies for time- and cost-effective analysis. The discovery and maturation of new materials has been outpaced by the thicket of data created by new combinatorial and high throughput analytical techniques. The elaboration of this "quantitative avalanche"—and the resulting complex, multi-factor analyses required to understand it—means that interest, investment, and research are revisiting informatics approaches as a solution. This work, from Krishna Rajan, the leading expert of the informatics approach to materials, seeks to break down the barriers between data management, quality standards, data mining, exchange, and storage and analysis, as a means of accelerating scientific research in materials science. This solutions-based reference synthesizes foundational physical, statistical, and mathematical content with emerging experimental and real-world applications, for interdisciplinary researchers and those new to the field. Identifies and analyzes interdisciplinary strategies (including combinatorial and high throughput approaches) that accelerate materials development cycle times and reduces associated costs Mathematical and computational analysis aids formulation of new structure-property correlations among large, heterogeneous, and distributed data sets Practical examples, computational tools, and software analysis benefits rapid identification of critical data and analysis of theoretical needs for future problems

Machine learning methods are changing the way we design and discover new materials. This book provides an overview of approaches successfully used in addressing materials problems (alloys, ferroelectrics, dielectrics) with a focus on probabilistic methods, such as Gaussian processes, to accurately estimate density functions. The authors, who have extensive experience in this interdisciplinary field, discuss generalizations where more than one competing material property is involved or data with differing degrees of precision/costs or fidelity/expense needs to be considered.

New technologies are made possible by new materials, and until recently new materials could only be discovered experimentally. Recent advances in solving the crystal structure prediction problem means that the computational design of materials is now a reality. Computational Materials Discovery provides a comprehensive review of this field covering different computational methodologies as well as specific applications of materials design. The book starts by illustrating how and why first-principle calculations have gained importance in the process of materials discovery. The book is then split into three sections, the first exploring different approaches and ideas including crystal structure prediction from evolutionary approaches, data mining methods and applications of machine learning. Section two then looks at examples of designing specific functional materials with special technological relevance for example photovoltaic materials, superconducting materials, topological insulators and thermoelectric materials. The final section considers recent developments in creating low-dimensional materials. With contributions from pioneers and leaders in the field, this unique and timely book provides a convenient entry point for graduate students, researchers and industrial scientists on both the methodologies and applications of the computational design of materials.

This open access book brings out the state of the art on how informatics-based tools are used and expected to be used in nanomaterials research. There has been great progress in the area in which “big-data” generated by experiments or computations are fully utilized to accelerate discovery of new materials, key factors, and design rules. Data-intensive approaches play indispensable roles in advanced materials characterization. "Materials informatics" is the central paradigm in the new trend. "Nanoinformatics" is its essential subset, which focuses on nanostructures of materials such as surfaces, interfaces, dopants, and point defects, playing a critical role in determining materials properties. There have been significant advances in experimental and computational techniques to characterize individual atoms in nanostructures and to gain quantitative information. The collaboration of researchers in materials science and information science is growing actively and is creating a new trend in materials science and engineering.

Machine learning methods are changing the way we design and discover new materials. This book provides an overview of approaches successfully used in addressing materials problems (alloys, ferroelectrics, dielectrics) with a focus on probabilistic methods, such as Gaussian processes, to accurately estimate density functions. The authors, who have extensive experience in this interdisciplinary field, discuss generalizations where more than one competing material property is involved or data with differing degrees of precision/costs or fidelity/expense needs to be considered.