IRGs

The goal of IRG #3 is to advance the understanding of molecular plasmonics at the single nanoparticle and single molecule levels and to develop the new research tools necessary to accomplish this. The group is working to control and manipulate light on the nanometer-length scale as mediated by localized and propagating surface plasmons. The major […]

IRG-4 research enables novel technological advances in the area of hybrid organic/inorganic nanoelectronic materials by improving fundamental understanding and optimizing processing efficiency across multiple length-scales. The IRG’s collaborative efforts take advantage of several unique and complementary strengths:

Synthesis: organic high-k dielectrics and inorganic semiconductor nanowires.
Processing: single-walled carbon nanotube sorting and printable electronics.
Characterization: scanning probe microscopy and synchrotron […]

Controlling Electrons at Interfaces
IRG Senior Participants:
Hector Abruña (C&CB, co-leader), Dan Ralph (Phys, co-leader), Piet Brouwer (Phys), Robert Buhrman (A&EP), J. C. Séamus Davis (Phys), Paul McEuen (Phys), David Muller (A&EP), Sandip Tiwari (ECE), R. Bruce van Dover (MS&E)
Collaborators: G. Coates (Cornell); W. Harneit (Freie Universität Berlin); C. W. Kim, M. K. Kim (Samsung […]

Photonic Building Blocks from Multiscale Materials
Our group is working to understand and control the optical properties of a novel class of radiative nanoparticles—fluorescent core-shell silica nanoparticles (C dots)—that combine the tunability of organic dyes with the durability of inorganic materials to achieve brightness levels comparable to quantum dots. The fundamental correlation between structure and photonic […]

Dynamics of Growth of Complex Materials
IRG Senior Participants:
George Malliaras (MS&E, co-leader), David Muller (A&EP, co-leader), Tomás Arias (Phys), Jack Blakely (MS&E), Joel D. Brock (A&EP), Paulette Clancy (C&BE), James R. Engstrom (C&BE),
Collaborators: J. Anthony (U. Kentucky), D. Bowler (Univ. Coll. London), D. Dale (CHESS), R. Headrick (U. Vermont), A. Kazimirov (CHESS), H. […]

Interfaces between organic and inorganic materials are now critical to many areas of science and technology, impacting such diverse areas as efficient solid-state lighting, consumer electronics and chemical/biological sensing. Yet there remains very little understanding of how to predict and control the chemical and physical properties of these interfaces at the nanoscale. The goal of […]

Fundamental Issues in Materials Integration on Silicon investigates the fundamental atomistic and mesoscopic mechanisms underlying the integration of materials, devices and structures on silicon, as an integration platform. Materials integration on Si leverages the power of CMOS through the addition of other components, thereby increasing function while maintaining the advantages and the versatility of […]

The last decade has witnessed considerable progress in the development of organic semiconductors as an alternative to amorphous silicon for low cost, thin film electronics. The attractive properties of organic semiconductors- low temperature processability, efficient electroluminescence, and reasonable charge carrier mobilities- have led to expectations of a new ‘plastic’ electronics with applications ranging from flexible […]

The unifying theme of the Magnetic Heterostructures group (IRG 3) is to achieve a thorough understanding of spin transport, magnetization dynamics, and exchange coupling in materials with precisely defined and well-characterized interfaces, including those with tailored interfacial disorder. Magnetism is the basis for many present, near term, and future technologies, including magnetic read heads and […]

Engineered nanoparticles present a wide range of opportunities for the synthesis and assembly of materials with entirely new electronic, optical or mechanical properties. They are of interest for materials science because their size-dependent characteristics give rise to an entirely new spectrum of materials properties. In addition, nanoparticles offer new ways of forming combinations of very […]

In IRG 4, Electromagnetic Nanostructures, we combine techniques for making composite materials with periodicity on the order of the wavelength of light with computational modeling tools to explore new physics and new applications. Highlights of this work include planar left-handed optical materials, holey fiber optical waveguides, inverse opal solar cells, field switchable optical fibers, and […]

The grand challenge of IRG-2 is to develop oxides as semiconductors materials to replace nitride-based systems in the next generation of devices such as solid-state lighting. By exploiting the potential of new growth strategies for oxide semiconductors, controlling and understanding defects and impurities a sound experimental and theoretical understanding of oxides as semiconductors […]

IRG Leader: Ellen Williams
IRG-1 seeks to establish predictive structure-property relationships for low-dimensional interfaces of promising materials candidates for optoelectronic and nanoelectronic applications. Investigations on layered structures (metal chalcogenides and graphenes), organic molecular films (anthracene-, pentacenene-, and phthalocyanine-based), and confined structures (islands and dots) permit direct determination of interface structural dynamics […]

IRG1 investigates how magnetism affects electron transport in a broad class of novel materials with unusual magnetic states. The presence of strong interaction between electrons leads to a variety of magnetically ordered states ranging from ferromagnetism, ferrimagnetism, antiferromagnetism, spin density waves, and the spin-Peierls state. Strong interest in how magnetism affects charge transport has come […]

Many state-of-the-art microelectronic, photonic and MEMS devices are based upon small scale contacts for which performance and fabrication are governed by the deformation, adhesion, and transport properties of many diverse materials and interfaces. Yet despite the widespread use of such devices, there is only a limited understanding of the phenomena governing adhesion, a shortfall that […]

Research Goals: Microphotonic materials are rapidly emerging as one of the most promising new platforms for future optical devices and device components. Such materials allow an unprecedented level of control over the confinement and propagation of light, at dimensions that enabled the design and eventual integration of a large number and variety of optical micro devices on a single chip.