Interdisciplinary Interactions : Session-I

1. Interdisciplinary Interactions : Session-I Nanotechnology Research at Texas A&M March 5th 2008 Sponsor: Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) - NANSA - Nanotechnology and Nanoscience Student Association

2. ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING Jun Kameoka kameoka@ece.tamu.edu 845-7564 312E ZEC Ph.D., Cornell University, 2002 M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Cornell University, 1999 M.Eng. in Nuclear Science, Cornell University, 1997 B.S., Chiba University, 1995 • Research: • Dr. Kameoka’s specialty is Bio-Nanotechnology and ultimate goal is to develop the technology that enables us to sense and manipulate a single molecule. • For example, human bodies are made of various biological molecules such as DNA, peptide, protein and so forth, and the mutation of these molecules may cause serious diseases. • Bio-Nanotechnology, the growing and promising field where micro or nanostructures are fabricated to sense and manipulate biological molecules, may hold the key to providing new medical diagnostic and treatment options. • His in-depth experience with bio-nanotechnology, micro and nanofluidics, nanosensor, bioMEMS has made him well equipped and will continue to inspire for the research of sensing and manipulating targeted molecules. http://www.ece.tamu.edu/~kameoka/

3. The research focus is to develop the new generation of near field optical sensors. They have fabricated a multi path surface plasmon sensor that is potentially useful for biomolecule detection. In addition to working on characterization of the periodic metal nanostructure. This is expected to be utilized for molecular sensing. Nano scale particles, wires and fibers are fabricated by electrospinning process, from both organic and inorganic materials. Currently working on their application for medical and biological fields. The focus is to detect specific single molecules in physiological molecule concentration. To accomplish this goal, we are making nanochannel devices. Currently, the nanochannels with diameter of 20 nm have been fabricated and are planned for detecting small concentration of mutated molecules.

4. ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING Haiyan Wang wangh@ece.tamu.edu 845-5082 723 BRWN Ph.D., North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 2002 M.S., Institute of Metal Research, Shenyang, China, 1999 B.S., Nanchang University, Nanchang, China, 1998 • Research: • Nanostructured nitride and oxide thin film heterostructures for microelectronics, optoelectronics, magnetic, high temperature superconductors, solid oxide fuel cells, radiation tolerance and structural applications. • High temperature superconductors: coated superconductor scale-up and architectures; flux-pinning mechanisms of nanoparticles and defects. • Microstructural characterizations with transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high resolution TEM, Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and XRD. http://www.ece.tamu.edu/~pldlab/

5. Their research on (1) various functional thin films synthesized by Pulsed Laser Deposition and solution-based processes, (2) thin film characterizations, and (3) structure-property correlations. • The materials include: • Functional nitrides thin films and nanocomposites as diffusion barriers for Cu interconnects, superhard coatings for high temperature applications, and irradiation tolerance coatings for advanced nuclear reactors. • Functional oxide thin films and nanocomposites for high temperature superconductor / coated conductors, ferroelectric materials, and thin film Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC). • Metallic thin film coatings. • Bio-compatible coatings and soft material deposition.

6. NUCLEAR ENGINEERING Lin Shao lshao@tamu.edu 979/845-4107 131D ZEC Ph.D., Physics, University of Houston, 2001B.S., Nuclear Physics and Technology, Peking University, Beijing, China, 1997 • Research: • Materials science and nanotechnology • Radiation effects in nuclear and electronic materials • Ion beam analysis http://nuclear.tamu.edu/home/people/faculty/shao/index.php

7. Patent: US6835626

8. PHYSICS JairoSinova sinova@physics.tamu.edu 979-845-4179 ENPH 525 • Research: • In the last few decades, there has been an enormous development in techniques to tackle disorder in non-interacting systems and to deal with interacting systems in the absence of disorder. • Beyond the Hartree-Fock theory, there has not been further substantial progress in developing simple tools that deal with both in an equal footing. • The question is how to deal with disorder and interactions at the same time • The development of such techniques would help the understanding of many real physical systems whose 'disorder' or interaction strength can actually be tuned by external parameters. • Some of the fields in which these topic is of major importance are the Hall effects, diluted magnetic semiconductors, magnetoresistance, Bose-Einstein condensates, and glassy systems. http://faculty.physics.tamu.edu/sinova/

9. We study spin Hall effect induced edge spin accumulation in a two-dimensional hole gas with strong spin orbit interactions. Our results indicate that it is an intrinsic property, in the sense that it is independent of the strength of disorder scattering. Ferromagnetic semiconductorspromise a technological revolution but there are several obstacles: (1) Ferromagnetic semiconductors are not ferromagnets at room temperature, (2) their transport properties and optical properties do not depend on their magnetic state, and (3) aside form being ferromagnetic at room temperature we wish them to also behave as semiconductors. Magnetoresistancestudies: spintronics and nanoelectronics. The TAMR effect observed in nanocontacts does not require different coercive fields on either side of the nanoconstriction. This makes it more desirable for the integration of nanoelectronics and spintronics when compared to Tunneling Magnetoresistance (TMR) in nanocontacts. In many aspects, atomic Bose-Einstein condensates can be consider to be the "spherical cow" approximation of an interacting many body system. Not only is their effective Hamiltonian relatively simple in the usual dilute limit but the actual many body system, even the interactions among the particles, can be tuned directly.

10. PHYSICS Winfried Teizer teizer@physics.tamu.edu 979-845-7730 ENPH 410 • Research: • Dr. Winfried Teizer leads the NanoLab in the Physics Department of Texas A&M University. • He is working on various projects in the general areas of molecular nanomagnets, spintronics, nanophysics and highly correlated systems. • The goal is to further the understanding of physical properties at the size or temperature scale where quantum mechanics governs the dominant processes. • A particular emphasis is currently on those properties that are driven by spin processes. http://faculty.physics.tamu.edu/teizer/

11. The Spin Hall Effect The objective of this project is to detect the recently postulated1 Spin Hall Effect (SHE), a physical effect of fundamental importance, which allows the study of pure spin currents and the characterization of spin properties in materials. NanoSQUIDs - Development and Applications The first objective of this project is to miniaturize Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs) to the nanometer regime ("NanoSQUIDs"). SQUIDs are employed as ultra-sensitive magnetic flux detectors in research and industrial applications. NanoSQUIDs are expected to be useful for applications in magnetic characterization, in particular where small spatial resolution or arrays of localized detectors are required. The second objective is to use NanoSQUIDs for the characterization of molecular nanomagnets. A Metal-Insulator transition in 2-dimensional GdxSi1-x? 1. To help answer the fundamental question: Is there a metallic state and thus a Metal-Insulator transition in 2 dimensions? And if so, 2. To measure the density of states in an in-situ tunable material in 2 dimensions and determine the critical exponent. The density of states of GdxSi1-x at theMetal-Insulator Transition