Combinatorial material chip technology is a key element of the high-throughput materials experimentation which enables fulfillment of the Materials Genome Initiative. A typical combinatorial materials library contains 10 to 10⁸ samples on a single substrate, and their compositions, structures, and properties are rapidly characterized. Over the past two decades, much progress has been made in combinatorial materials synthesis and characterization techniques. Combinatorial materials screening has been widely applied in almost all fields of materials research. In this article, examples were chosen from 15 categories of materials, such as electronic materials, magnetic materials, photonic materials, optical materials, energy materials, dielectric materials, catalysts, and alloys, to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the combinatorial methodology in new materials discovery, materials and devices optimization, as well as fundamental physics research.

combinatorial materials  /  high throughput  /  materials genome engineering  /  fast materials characterization