Opto-Electro-Mechanical Materials and Devices

Nano-electronic, nano-photonic, piezoelectric and piezomagnetic materials show strongly coupled and often nonlinear behavior. Design of devices based on these material systems aims to utilize the nano/micro-scale, nonlinear and strongly correlated effects to enhance various aspects of performance and expand various functional scopes. Understanding fundamental processes involved in fabricating such material system and devices are very important. Thermo-mechanically induced deformation, defects and their effects on structure and properties play significant role on the functional scope and useful life of the device in operation. Current research effort includes investigation of wide bandgap semiconductor heterostructures, nanowire, quantum dot and their three-dimensional environments in context of addressing problems in fabrication process and functional performances.

A major challenge in conversion of light energy (solar energy) to useful electrical current under a suitable bias voltage is that electromagnetic radiation/scattering on the surface and inside materials produce molecular polarization. As a result, molecules vibrate (producing heat energy), and some energy is lost in heat radiation into ambient environment. Current research effort is aimed at overcoming such photo-electron conversion loss by molecular level design scheme to suppress vibration and enhance certain favorable oscillation of localized charges (called plasmons). Other efforts and possibilities, which are under study, include minimization of charge transport path-length in nano-material architecture.