Fall 2009 - Materials Science and Engineering - University of Maryland

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6facultyPROMOTIONSPhaneuf, Takeuchi Promoted to Full ProfessorshipThe Department of Materials Science and Engineering extends itscongratulations to faculty members Ray Phaneuf and Ichiro Takeuchi,who were promoted to the rank of full professor effective July 1, 2009.Phaneuf’s interests include nanotechnology,surface physics, low electron microscopy,photoemission electron microscopy, scannedprobe microscopy, and templating fordirected self-assembly. Takeuchi workswith combinatorial synthesis and thecharacterization of novel electronic and smartmaterials, fabrication and characterizationof novel thin-film multilayer devices, andmicroscopy.Within the past year and a half, bothprofessors’ research has attracted theattention of both the academic communityand the media.RAY PHANEUFA press release about Phaneuf’s work ontemplating for directed, atomic-level selfassembly—whichcould be used to “grow”new kinds of computers and sensors—was picked up by online andprint news outlets around the world (see “Templating for DirectedSelf-Assembly,” Techtracks, Spring 2008.). The research was presentedat the Nanosteps workshop in France and selected for the VirtualJournal, published online weekly by the American Institute of Physicsand the American Physical Society. Virtual Journal editors handselectrecently-published papers with which they feel researchersshould be familiar in order to keep up withdevelopments in the field.ICHIRO TAKEUCHITakeuchi was recognized for his group’s recentdiscovery of a new, lead-free piezoelectricmaterial that could replace PZT, a lead-basedcompound widely used in electronics. (see“Reducing Our Lead Footprint,” Techtracks,Spring 2009.) After the research was publishedin Applied Physics Letters, a correspondingpress release received wide distribution.Takeuchi was also selected as one the nation’s100 most outstanding young engineersinvited to attend the National Academyof Engineering’s 2008 U.S. Frontiers ofEngineering Symposium, a special forum foryoung engineers (aged 30-45) from industry,academia, and government to discuss theirpioneering research.Both professors have also been recognized by the Clark School as“Research Leaders” for their efforts in bringing sponsored researchdollars to campus.You can learn more about Professor Takeuchi’s research on p. 5.studentNEWSBanerjee Wins MSA PresidentialStudent AwardGraduate student Parag Banerjee, advisedby Professor Gary Rubloff, won theMicroscopy Society of America’s (MSA)Presidential Student Award for a papertitled “Crystallization Behavior of HfO 2Nanotubes in Different Environments,”which he presented at the MSA’s 2009Microscopy & Microanalysis Meeting thisJuly in Richmond, Va. The award recognizespapers first-authored by students that reflectexcellence in research.Banerjee’s paper describes hownanotubes of amorphous hafnium oxidecrystallize when heated under variousconditions of mechanical stress andtemperature. Samples were generated inthe Laboratory for Advanced MaterialsProcessing and the Maryland NanoCenter’sNanoscale Imaging Spectroscopy andProperties Laboratory transmission electronmicroscopy facilities. By studying theformation of tiny crystals in these nanotubes,Banerjee hopes to shed light on fundamentalatomic rearrangements that occur innanostructures during crystallization.Banerjee’s overall research concentrateson creating energy harvesting devices(including solar cells) and energy storagedevices (including supercapacitors andbatteries) using conventional semiconductorprocesses as well as self-assembled techniquesfor nano-fabrication.“If these devices are going to becommercialized,” he explains, “they need tobe integrated withthe [manufacturing]processes currentlyavailable. At the sametime the devicesneed to be cheap.These varied processrequirements meanthat one has to becreative in one’sapproach and yetBANERJEE
come up with devices that possess improvedperformance characteristics.”Ren Wins thesis awardsGraduate student (now alumnus) ShenqiangRen (Ph.D. ’09), advised by ProfessorManfred Wuttig, was awarded first place anda prize of $1500 in the 2009 Dean’s DoctoralResearch Award Competition. His project,“Bottom-up Multiferroic Nanostructures,”earned top honors from a panel of judgesincluding members of the Clark School’sBoard of Visitors.To give top Clark School doctoral studentresearchers special recognition that willbe valuable in launching their careers, and toshow all students the importance of high qualityresearch, Dean Darryll Pines created theDean’s Doctoral Research Award Competitionthis year. Students submitted their workthrough competitions at the department level.Ren was selected to represent the Departmentof Materials Science and Engineering in thecompetition after winning the inaugural MSEDoctoral Thesis Award. MSE Professor andChair Robert M. Briber describes Ren’s workas “exciting and promising.”Ren was recognized for the high levelof creativity and intellectual insight he hasdemonstrated in his development of new,self assembled multiferroic nanocompositematerials that could be used to createelectronic nanodevices for use in futuregenerations of computers and storage devices.His efforts have led to four first author paperspublished between 2007-2009 in AppliedPhysics Letters, three of which were also selectedfor the Virtual Journal of Nanoscience andTechnology. Ren has filed for four patents basedon his work.“He is uniquely qualified for this awardbecause of his outstanding intellectual contributionto materials science and his highproductivity,” Wuttig wrote of Ren in hisnomination letter. “He created a new fieldof materials science, diblock copolymer templatednano-oxide composites, and he usedhis unique synthetic skills to create novelnano-magnetoelectrics with very high magnetoelectriccoupling coefficients. In my opinion,Shenqiang embodies the ideal of [the] mostsuccessful graduate student: highly intelligent,dynamic, hard driving but even tempered,forward looking and not intimidated by seeminglyinsurmountable obstacles.”“The Clark School gave me the freedomto pursue my research interests, to do what Ibelieve in,” says Ren of his Ph.D. experience.He credits Wuttig’s support for his success.This fall, Ren began postdoctoral research atthe Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Student ENERGY research:Israel PerezGraduate student (now alumnus) IsraelPerez (Ph.D. ’09), advised by ProfessorGary Rubloff, conducted research into hownanoporous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO)can be used as a platform for energy storage.Perez has created tiny energy-storingdevices called metal-insulator-metal (MIM)nanocapacitors (see p. 8 for an example).The innovation involves the use ofAAO to boost energy density. Thishas resulted in a tenfold gain in theamount of energy that can be stored,which allows these nanocapacitorsto compete with electrochemicalsupercapacitors as viable energystorage devices. Near-term applicationsinclude working in parallel withconventional energy storage devices incell phones and laptops, and perhapseventually becoming the sole energy sourcein such devices.Nanoporous AAO has vast implicationsas a tool for nanoscience research andas a structure from which devices canbe fabricated because of its regular andordered nanopores. Nanoporous AAOmembranes are formed by anodizinghighly pure aluminum in an electrolyticsolution. During the anodization process thenanopores naturally self-organize into arraysof hexagonal ordering. This processing leadsto a high aspect ratio (1000:1) membranewhich contains straight and cylindrical poreswith diameters of ~50-80nm and depths of0.5-30µm aligned normal to their substrate.Perez’s research involved synthesizingnanoporous AAO templates and studyingthe characteristic shapes and materialscomposition of the structures to betterunderstand the implications for energydevices built on their surfaces.The MIM nanocapacitors are anexample of an energy device createdusing these templates. Using atomic layerdeposition, a thin-film deposition methodable to deposit conformal films in highaspect ratio nanostructures, a three-layerMIM structure (TiN-Al 2 O 3 -TiN) wasdeposited into the nanopores of AAOtemplates. When he tested this structure,Perez found that using nanoporous AAOboosted the energy density of the simpleMIM structure, surpassing the capacitancedensity values previously reported for similardevices by a factor of 10. The high powerdensity characteristic of the electrostaticcapacitors, coupled with this largeimprovement in energy density, makes theMIM nanocapacitors capable of competingwith electrochemical supercapacitors as viableenergy storage devices.This fall, Perez began postdoctoral research atthe University of California–Irvine.7RENPEREZ
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Fall 2009 - Materials Science and Engineering - University of Maryland

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