Research Overview

Department faculty members and students are undertaking a variety of research exploring materials and surfaces that are expected to play an important part in many aspects of technology development, including continued advancements in micro-/nano-/organic electronics technologies, nanotechnologies, biomedical technologies, chemical technologies, and theory and modeling of materials and devices.

Key areas of research include:

Advanced Nanoelectronics

TMD image of a tunnel field-effect transistor (TFET) from the use of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) techniques.
(Dr. Hinkle, with collaborator Professor Alan Seabaugh’s group at Notre Dame)

Advanced Nanoelectronics

Advanced Characterization Of Nanomaterials And Devices

Advanced Characterization Of Nanomaterials And Devices
Dr. Auciello, Dr. Julia Hsu, Dr. Jiyoung Kim, Dr. Moon Kim, Dr. Kyle McCall and Dr. Amy Walker.

Advanced Characterization Of Nanomaterials And Devices

AI VR

ATEC graduate student Aaron Klick BA’12 (left) and computer science graduate student Zihao Yang demonstrate how to navigate their virtual reality Nanoparticle Museum, which they worked on together with Dr. Moon Kim.

AI and VR for Science Education

Biomedical

A pseudocolored TEM image of a 250 nm silicate nanoshell that exhibits very high brightness for MRI contrast-specific imaging
(Dr. Kim)

Biomedical Materials and Systems

Catalysis

Dr. Chabal and colleagues discovered that immersion of hydrogen-terminated Si(111) surfaces in methanol resulted in a nanopattern of methoxy that could be transformed into F or OH groups.
(D. J. Michalak, S. R. Amy, D. Aureau, M. Dai, A. Esteve, and Y. J. Chabal, Nature Materials 9 (3), 266 (2010).)

Catalysis

Energy Conversion and Storage

Sodium-ion design, which retains the high energy density of a lithium-ion cathode, replaces most of the lithium atoms (green) with sodium (yellow). The layered structure of the new material also incorporates manganese (purple) and oxygen (red).
(D. Kim, M. Cho, K. Cho, Advanced Materials June 2017, [Abstract]).

Energy Conversion and Storage

Flexible Electronics

Dr. Chadwin Young investigates new semiconductor materials that could be used in transistors and circuits printed on flexible materials.

Flexible Electronics

materials-and-devices-for-harsh-environments

Materials and Devices for Harsh Environments.
(K. Brenner, M. Quevedo-Lopez, and B. Gnade).

Materials and Devices for Harsh Environments

Materials Modeling and Simulation

Atomistic, theoretical model used to calculate the current-voltage characteristics of a transistor based on graphene nanoribbons (top) and the dieletric constant of graphene (left) and graphene nanoribbons (right).
(M. Van de Put and J. Fang, W. Vandenberghe and M. V. Fishcetti, Physical Review B 94 [2016]).

Materials Modeling and Simulation

Semiconductor Research Technology

Semiconductor Research Technology .
(K. Brenner, M. V. Fishcetti, M. Quevedo-Lopez, J. Kim, W. Vandenberghe, and C. Young).

Semiconductor Research Technology

Sensors

Image of fundamental interactions of a neutron and charged particles with matter. (Dr. Manuel Quevedo-Lopez)

Sensors and Systems

Synthesis of Nanomaterials

(a) TEM image of CuCrO2 nanocrystals. (b) High-resolution TEM image of an individual CuCrO2 nanocrystal. (c) Indexed SAED pattern of CuCrO2 nanocrystals.
(J. Wang, Y.-J. Lee, and J. W. P. Hsu, Journal of Materials Chemistry C, April 2016.)

Synthesis of Nanomaterials

ReseaRch