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Energy and electronic nanomaterials and interfaces: Directed synthesis, assembly and modification of nanostructures
Professor
Ramanath received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Illinois-Urbana in 1997. His
doctoral work won him a Materials Research
Society Graduate Student Award (now known as the Gold Award). He obtained
his B. Tech. in Metallurgical Engineering from the IIT, Madras, India, and his M.S. in
Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Cincinnati. He was a
staff member at Novellus Systems, CA, and a
Visiting Scientist at the Physics Department of Linköping University, Sweden,
before he joined the Rensselaer faculty in Fall 1998 as an Assistant
Professor. He became a tenured Associate Professor in 2003, and was promoted
to full Professor in 2006. He served
as the Director of the New York State Center for Future Energy Systems
(4/08-1/10).
Nanoscopic building blocks and heterostructures: Directed synthesis, assembly and properties
Advanced Materials 2008, Nano Lett 2010, ACS Nano 2010, J Phys Chem C 2010...
Devise strategies to synthesize and assemble nanostructures of desired size, shape, stability and properties, and by combining chemical and/or physical guidance (e.g., molecularly-directed nanostructure sizing, shaping and doping; lithography, ion irradiation, microwave stimulation) with self-assembly and scalable non-vacuum processing. Understand and manipulate molecular/atomic-level mechanisms and relationships between processing parameters, nanostructure and assembly structure and chemistry, to tailor functional (thermal, mechanical and electronic) properties. Examples of structures being investigated include nanowires, nanorods, nanoplates, and their thin fiml and bulk assemblies, core-shell and branched structures, interpenetrating nanowire networks of high- and low-bandgap seminconductors.
Present projects: Nanostructured bulk high figure of merit thermoelectric materials, nanotube/nanowire/nanoparticle networks and composites for photovoltaics and heat management devices.
Molecularly tailored interfaces: understanding and manipulating nanoscale phenomena for enhanced properties
Nature 2007, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces 2010, Phys. Rev. B 2011...
Investigate and develop the use of molecular nanolayers to tailor the mechanical integrity, chemical stability, and electrical and thermal transport properties of hard-soft and hard-hard interfaces, nanostructures and their assemblies for applications in nanoelectronics, porous materials and thin films and bulk nano-/bio-composites. Enable the direct integration of non-sticking metallic and dielectric materials. Directly access and tune nanoscale phenomena and properties (e.g., Fermi-level pinning, interfacial thermal conductance, charge capacity) and develop atomistic/molecular-level understanding of interface stability-property relationships.
Present projects: Nanomechanics of interfacial fracture and corrosion at molecularly tailored interfaces, work function tuning at metal/high-k interfaces, thermal conductance manipulation for heat management, molecularly functionalized low-k and high-k dielectrics and nanoelectrodes for nanodevice wiring and energy storage.
Processing and microanalytical techniques We are interested in, and adept at, synergistically combining and devising new multiple processing approaches for thin film/nanostructure synthesis, and exploiting multiple microanalysis techniques to capture key features of atomistic/molecular-level phenomena. We use combinations of CVD, PVD, directed self-assembly (from wet-chemical and vapor-phase fluxes), nanofabrication (e.g., lithography, etching), ion-irradiation, microwaves, and post-deposition annealing in vacuum/controlled gas ambients. We are particularly interested in low-energy intensity and scalable techniques. Our growing toolbox of microanalytical techniques include electron microscopy (conventional and high resolution TEM, diffraction, SEM), related spatially resolved X-ray and electron spectroscopy techniques, XRD, various spectroscopies (e.g., RBS, XPS, AES, SIMS, EDX, IR, UV-visible), in situ electrical measurements during deposition and annealing, four-point bend adhesion testing and electrical device testing (I-V, C-V, TVS, etc.).
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