My 12-year-old granddaughter Nina Alesi once asked me, “Grandpa,
you are a scientist at IBM, so what do you do?”
I tried to reply, “Oh, I watch atoms move…”
But before I could finish this sentence, my 7-year-old grandson
Vinnie interjected, “Grandpa, do atoms play soccer?”
This book is about the games atoms play in diffusion and various
other properties of materials. While diffusion has been studied for more
than 100 years in solids, its importance, excitement, and intellectual challenges
remain undiminished with time. It is central to understanding the
relationship between the structure and properties of naturally occurring
and synthetic materials, which is at the root of current technological
development and innovations. The diversity of material has led to spectacular
progress in functional inorganics, polymers, granular materials,
photonics, complex oxides, metallic glasses, quasi-crystals, and strongly
correlated electronic materials. The integrity of complex materials packages
is determined by diffusion, a highly interactive and synergic phenomenon
that interrelates to the microstructure, the microchemistry, and
the superimposed physical fields. While the various physico-chemical
properties of the materials are affected by diffusion, they determine diffusion
itself.