Department of Materials and Nuclear Engineering (Professor John N. Kidder)

Chemical Vapor Deposition of Metal Oxide Thin Films

This project will involve research activities in chemical vapor
deposition (CVD) of metal oxide thin films.  The science and
engineering of thin film growth by chemical vapor deposition is an
interesting combination of physics, chemistry, materials science, and
process engineering.   In this project the student will do
research to determine the operating characteristics of the CVD vacuum
system and reactant delivery instrumentation; develop optimized protocols
for system heating, wafer loading, deposition run start-up and shut-down;
support experiments in thin film growth which characterize the
uniformity, stoichiometry, and other film properties as a function of the
process parameters.
 

Characterization of Metal oxide compounds (L. J. Martinez-Miranda):

In this project, metal oxide compounds prepared using different processing
methods will be characterized structurally in order to determine:
crystallinity, texture, epitaxial quality and variations within the film.
The project will expose and introduce the student to various processing
methods, as well as to advanced diffraction techniques. Possible effects of
structure variation on electro-magnetic properties will be considered. This
project may include both thin films as well as nanostructured materials
(joint with J. Kidder and L. Salamanca-Riba)

Electrochemical Processing of Magneto-resistive films (L. Salamanca-Riba):
In this project, electrochemical methods will be used to deposit magnetic
oxide films onto different substrates and analyzed structurally. The
project will involve both the optimization of the deposition process as
well as general structural characterization of the films.

Nanoporous Gas Transport and Morphology Control in Semicrystalline
Polymer Membranes (P. Kofinas)
The proposed research program will investigate the influence of
blending a semicrystalline or amorphous homopolymer with the
corresponding block copolymer on the resulting morphology and gas
transport properties of the polymeric
system.  The results of these experiments will
break new ground in the understanding of crystallization of spatially
confined chains, and could lead to a better fundamental
understanding of the effect of self - assembled  nanoscale domain
orientation on   gas transport behavior in semicrystalline  copolymer blend
systems.  Implications to polymer blend compatibilization including recycled
consumer polyolefins will be explored.  Special attention will be
given to investigation of barrier properties in semicrystalline
polymer blends used in the tire industry.

(NEW) Analysis of Terrace Spacings for Vicinal Surfaces (T. Einstein)
 
There has been controversy over how the interaction between steps
on vicinal surfaces.  Depending on which approximations are made, different
analytic forms can be derived to account for the experimentally measurable
terrace-width distributions, i.e. the distribution of spacings between
neighboring steps.  One goal is to assess the relative goodness of fits of
these forms to actual data.  A second is to assess the magnitude and nature
of the errors that are introduced because of the intrinsic discreteness of
data and the inability to define precisely the mean spacing between steps.
Theoretically, it is easier to describe the step-step correlation function
(regardless of whether they are nearest neighbors); accordingly, we will
analyze experimental images to extract numerical data to check predictions.
Time permitting, some related Monte Carlo simulations of these effects may
be undertaken.

Electric Field and Currents At Stepped Metal Surfaces

P.J. Rous, UMBC

This project is part of theoretical research program in which we are
attempting to understand the phenomenon of electromigration at
metal surfaces. Atoms on the surface of a current-carrying metal
experience a force which causes atomic migration parallel to the
direction of the electron flow. This motion, called electromigration,
arises from the interaction between the migrating atoms and the
local electric field and current at the surface of the metal.

The aim of this project is to understand the nature of the local
electric fields and currents that arise at the surface of a current-
carrying metal. In particular, we will try to understand how the
fields and currents are influenced by the presence of steps and
islands. Initially, we will apply classical electromagnetic theory to
compute the fields at a prototypical stepped metal surface. This will
require the numerical solution of Laplace's equation using a
relaxation method. Next we will incorporate the effect of screening
into the model. We will compare the results of these calculations to
quantum mechanical predictions of the fields, currents and
electromigration forces.

This project is suited to a person interested in the application of
computational methods to problems in theoretical physics, who has a
good understanding of electromagnetic theory and basic
programming skills.