The article entitled "Synthesis and Electrical Characterization of the Polymorphic Indium Tin Oxide Nanocrystalline Powders" received the Edward C. Henry Award from the American Ceramic Society for the best Electronics Division paper in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society during 2006.
Thin polymer films exhibit glass transition temperatures (Tgs) that are depressed from the bulk material Tg because of increased degrees of chain motion. Using such films as gate dielectrics in organic thin-film transistors provides a sensitive new probe of polymer surface motional characteristics at the buried semiconductor-dielectric interface.
Brownian motion, the tiny random movements of small objects suspended in a fluid, has served as a paradigm for concepts of randomness ranging from noise in light detectors to fluctuations in the stock market.
Penicillin, long used in medications, is now being studied as a coating, a novel weapon against bacteria that could protect medical implants and the surgical tools used to insert them. The development could potentially save thousands of lives, as many patients contract infections following surgery.
Active interface architectures, exhibiting structural sensitivity to the presence of chemical species or light, are of interest for sensor and functional nanostructure applications. LCMRC researchers have demonstrated that it is possible to use liquid crystals to read out the state of a photoactive monolayer with great sensitivity to the incident wavelength. The wavelength dependent photo-induced shape transition of interfacial molecules from linear (trans) to bent (cis) produces distinct orientational changes in a contacting liquid crystal layer that can in turn be read out optically.
Modern liquid crystal displays (LCDs) operate by achieving a desired orientation of the LC molecules within the display. LCMRC researchers have demonstrated that topographic surface patterns made by nanoimprinting can produce exotic surface alignment of LCs, including bistable orientations (NE or NW) generated by an array of nanoscale boxes on the surface, as shown in the figure. Bistability is a feature by which the pixels in a display to remember their state even in absence of applied voltage, an enabling capability for the fabrication of extremely low power consumption displays.