Research - Structure, Properties, Electron-Imaging and Electron Diffraction (SPEED)
Projects
- Atomic and electronic structure of battery materials: chemical trasformation in Li and Mg battery materials, and impact on electronic structure.
- Electron nanocrystallography: Develop methods for quantifying and mapping crystal symmetry, structure and bonding using scanning electron nanodiffraction or 4D-STEM.
- Surface and Defects in quantum materials: Understanding interplay between composition, strain and defects and their effects in semiconductors and quantum materials
- Transistor device metrology: Characterization of strain, defects and dopants in FinFET structures.
Highlights
Battery Materials
Mg insertion in manganese oxide
We employ spinel λ-MnO2 particles as a model cathode material to investigate their operating mechanism via a suite of electrochemical and structural characterizations.
Nanomechanics
Dislocation avalanches
The high entropy alloys have the same average structure as copper or iron. But the atoms are structured in such way to allow simultaneous measurements of dislocation motions and mechanical response in nanopillars, using a TEM to locate exactly when and where avalanches occur.
Electron Nanocrystallography
Transistor device metrology
Control of crystallinity and strain is critical in the design and fabrication of sub-10 nm transistor devices. We are developing electron diffraction techniques to meet the characterization/metrology challenge.