Materials Sciences Contacts

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Physical Behavior of Materials

Dr. John T. Prater
919.549.4259
john prater

The program of Physical Behavior of Materials seeks research directed at providing an improved understanding of the fundamental mechanisms and key materials and processing variables that determine the electronic, magnetic, and optical (EMO) properties of materials and affect the reliability of EMO devices. Emphasis is on research that will facilitate the nanostructuring of materials to realize the materials-by-design concept where new and unique materials are constructed on the atomic scale with application-specific properties. This includes research on understanding the underlying thermodynamic and kinetic principles that control the evolution of microstructures; understanding the mechanisms whereby the microstructure affects the physical properties of materials; and developing insight and methodologies for the beneficial utilization and manipulation of defects and microstructure to improve material performance. Major trends in this subfield include 1) electronic materials: materials for microelectronics and packaging; fabrication and processing of semi-conductors, interconnects, and device structures; and the characterization and control of trace impurities, defects, and interfaces in semiconductors; 2) magnetic materials: bulk and thin-film processing of magnetic materials for electronic and high frequency communications; and fundamental studies on magnetic coercivity and spin dynamics; and 3) optical materials: materials and processing methods for detectors, lasers, nonlinear optical materials, refractive and diffractive optics, and optical windows and coatings. Research to improve the long-term stability of EMO materials, develop multifunctional or smart EMO materials, and develop low observable materials is also being sought.

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Materials Design

Dr. John T Prater
919.549.4259
john prater

The objective of the Materials Design Program is to tailor material properties for application-driven property requirements. The research should investigate property interrelationships in materials growth, processing, or characterization with the approach eventually leading to stronger coupling of experimental research with theory or modeling (including phenomenological modeling). The goal is to predict and control material behavior during processing and operation; to predict property changes over time (based on science rather than statistics); to optimize performance and reliability; and to reduce cost and time to development. It would also be advantageous to develop strategies to define constraints imposed by the experiment and theory and to establish and populate open databases for processing, microstructure, properties, and performance etc. These could be continually updated to enable design, simulation, modeling, and theory to evolve and ultimately for property tradeoff in support of performance optimization to occur. In addition, this should also facilitate communication among researchers and engineers at the materials, subsystem, and system level. One area of emphasis will be surface and interface engineering in support of materials integration. There is particular interest in identifying new ways of combining similar and dissimilar materials which provide multifunctional capabilities, recognizing that functionality is often derived from properties very close to the interface. Processing models that build a solid theoretical underpinning will be a key to control/optimization of surface and interface properties. Surface and interface research in areas such as organic/semiconductor, bio/semiconductor, or bio/organic/semiconductor interfaces; dielectrics/semiconductor interfaces; transparent conductive thin films; dissimilar material and nano electrical contacts; and bonded or alternative substrates can be envisioned. Another area of emphasis will be development of in-situ and ex-situ analytical methods for analysis over the appropriate dimensions, that is, methods with appropriate spatial resolution or appropriate sensitivity. The goal is to understand and control material and growth parameters that affect a desired or undesired property within a particular property range. Other areas of interest are investigations of high temperature materials and their relevant degradation modes; development of adaptive materials capable of response to internal or external stimuli; study of self-repair or self-healing effects; growth and characterization of embedded nano-sized constituents designed for material and performance health monitoring; and investigations of novel methods leading to large-scale, large-quantity processing of nanomaterials. It is intended that, in addition to promoting convergence, combination, and integration of similar and dissimilar materials, the program also promotes convergence of and cross-disciplinary concepts for materials design.

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