Science of Advanced Materials faculty are drawn to materials research from a variety of disciplines. Their work represents the multidisciplinary nature of the field of materials science.

Areas of faculty expertise include:

• Electret polymers. Design and characterization of novel materials for electromechanical sensors and actuators.
• Electronic properties of nanomaterials. Molecular modeling of nanoscale materials based on density functional theory for applications in hydrogen storage, molecular magnetism, electronic devices and characterization methods.
• Inorganic materials synthesis. High-k dieletric thin films.
• Magnetic properties from first-principles. Development and exploration of novel theoretical and computational methods and their use to gain chemical and physical insight into magnetic properties of new materials.
• Microfabrication for sensor applications. Photolithography and deposition of metals and insulators for sensor applications.
• Microscopy. Light, SEM and TEM imaging.
• Nano devices. Nano devices for biomedical applications and environmental remediation.
• Photonic devices. Electromagnetic numerical modeling and characterization of devices with wavelength scale features.
• Raman spectroscopy. Characterization of local structure and dynamics of materials using inelastic light scattering.
• Study of advanced materials for environmental monitoring. Modeling, fabrication and characterization of piezoelectric materials.
• Theory of atomic clusters. Structure and electronic properties of small clusters.
• Theory of functional materials. Electronic, vibrational and functional properties of complex extended systems studied by first-principles methods.
• X-ray diffraction (XRD). Phase analysis, crystallite size, strain and 3-D (atomic-scale) structure determination of glasses, liquids, nanocrystals and crystals with intrinsic disorder.