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- Professor Ken Elder
Students involved in REU projects with Professor Elder will study the formation of nanoscale structures that arise in technologically important processes, such as epitaxial growth, sintering and solidification. Developing a fundamental understanding of these processes is critical to the goal of optimizing material performance since the structures often control mechanical, optical and electrical properties. Students involved in this work will learn the basics of non-linear modeling and will get hands-on experience programming state-of-the-art supercomputer clusters.
- Professor George Martins
Free ions or atoms, for example, in a gas, have a relatively simple electronic structure. Once inside a crystal, this structure changes in a way that will strongly depend on the type and order of the neighboring ions. Most materials of technological importance have thermodynamic properties, like resistivity, magnetization, etc, which strongly depend on this new, a priori unknown, electronic structure. Crystal-field theory is a way of calculating this structure through the use of some assumptions which can be tested by comparison with experiments. Materials with skutterudite structure have shown a variety of interesting properties which are believed to be determined mostly by the electronic structure of their Rare-earth ions (like Erbium, Dysprosium, etc). They are also technologically very promising, since they are considered front runners in producing the thermoelectric materials of the future. This project will use computational methods to obtain the electronic structure of a host of different materials with skutterudite structure. (OBS.: This project requires familiarity with Modern Physics. Some knowledge of Quantum Mechanics is desirable, but not mandatory). The figure below shows (schematically) the level splitting of a 3d shell when placed in an environment with trigonal symmetry.
- Professor Bradley Roth
Muscle is a biological material with anisotropic electrical properties (the electrical conductivity depends on direction). Because of the anisotropy, an electric field will cause a charge density to exist throughout the muscle. The electric field will exert a force on the charge, causing the muscle to deform. The goal of this project is to determine the size and distribution of this deformation.
- Professor Gopalan Srinivasan
Magnetostrictive materials change size in a varying magnetic field and size changes occur in piezoelectric materials in an applied electric field. Professor Srinivasan's research combines these two materials to create samples that can convert magnetic fields to electric fields. He characterizes them as to how well this transfer occurs. The current project specifically deals with high frequency applications in sensors and electrical devices.
- Professor Prem Vaishnava
Magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles are among the most promising nanomaterials being used in medicine as targeted, imaging, and therapeutic agents for detecting and treating cancer. Hyperthermia (also called thermal therapy or thermotherapy) is a type of cancer treatment in which body tissue is exposed to high temperatures (up to 113°F). Research has shown that high temperatures can damage and kill cancer cells, usually with minimal injury to normal tissues. By killing cancer cells and damaging proteins and structures within cells, hyperthermia may shrink tumors. Dr. Vaishnava has been studying the increase of temperature in different magnetic nanoparticles by exposing them to high frequency (125 kHz) magnetic fields. The figure below shows the increase in temperature with time for aqueous solutions of magnetite coated with tetra methyl ammonium hydroxide (TFO), gamma iron oxide coated with tetra methyl ammonium hydroxide (TGFO) and gamma iron oxide coated with alginate hydrogel polymers.
- Pdf file with a description of the 2006 projects: 2006 projects. If you want
copies of the power point presentations, contact martins@oakland.edu
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