Harry Atwater
daedalus.caltech.edu
Professor Harry Atwater's group is engaged in fundamental and
applied research in the synthesis, properties and processing
of electronic materials for use in the electronic and opto-electronic
devices and circuits of the 21st century. Electronic materials
research is interdisciplinary, involving challenges in applied
physics, physics, materials science, electrical and chemical
engineering. The members of the Atwater group includes graduate
students, research fellows and undergraduates from each of
these departments. They also maintain comprehensive experimental
facilities for growth and analysis.
Kaushik Bhattacharya
www.mechmat.caltech.edu
The research activities of Kaushik Bhattacharya are at the
intersection of Mechanics, Materials Science and Applied
Mathematics. Concepts in Mechanics and recent methods of
Mathematics are used to generate ideas for the design, development,
and creation of new materials and the optimization of materials
processing.
Brent Fultz
www.its.caltech.edu/~matsci/btfgrp/BTF_Group1.html
Professor Fultz and his group work broadly in the areas of
materials science, with emphasis on metals physics, thermodynamics,
and kinetics. Experimental work employs elastic and inelastic
scattering of neutrons, x-rays, gamma-rays, and electrons.
Applied research projects include the development of new
materials for electrodes in rechargeable batteries, and rare-earth
alloys with giant magnetostriction.
Bill Goddard
www.wag.caltech.edu
Professor Goddard's research group is the
Materials and Process Simulation Center
(MSC), located in the Beckman Institute
at the California Institute of Technology.
This multidisciplinary center (with ~50
graduate students and postdoctoral fellows
having expertise in chemistry, materials
science, physics, engineering and biotechnology)
focuses on the theoretical methods of Quantum
Mechanics and molecular dynamics for first
principles predictions of the fundamental
structures, properties, reactivity, and
processing of materials with applications
ranging from metal alloys, semiconductors,
and ceramics to polymers, proteins, DNA,
carbon nanostructures. Current focus is
on fuel cells (membranes and catalysts),
nanoelectronics, catalysis, and biotechnology
plus various materials projects funded
directly by industry. He is also director
for the Power,
Environmental, and Energy, Research (PEER)
Center (located off-campus) with a staff
of ~20 experimentalists studying problems
in petroleum, energy, and environmental
technologies.
Julia R. Greer
www.jrgreer.caltech.edu
 The main focus in Professor J.R.Greer's research group is
on investigating nano-scale material properties. Specifically,
we have developed a unique fabrication technique involving
the use of Focussed Ion Beam (FIB) to "carve out" single crystal
nanopillars ranging in diameter from 100 nm to several microns.
Their strengths in uniaxial compression are subsequently measured
in the Nanoindenter with a flat punch tip to remove the strain
gradient effect from the observed mechanical response. These
small pillars exhibit a very strong size effect in FCC and
BCC crystals, i.e. smaller pillars are some 50x stronger than
bulk, with the strengths at a significant fraction of the ideal
shear strength. The group’s efforts are currently concentrated
on the development of an in-situ mechanical testing instrument
called the "SEMentor" which combines the strengths of two instruments:
SEM and the Nanoindenter, allowing for direct visualization
of mechanical deformation during testing, local electron beam
irradiation, and beyond-compression testing (i.e. tension).
The following broad topics are currently available for graduate
student research:
- Mechanical property evolution during mechanical deformation
of nano-scale crystals and metallic glasses in tension and
compression.
- Dislocation behavior in nano-scale crystals through experiment
and computations.
- Investigation of local electron irradiation
effects on the bandgap and electrical performance of nano-scale
semiconductors (i.e. graphene ribbons)
Sossina Haile
addis.caltech.edu
The work in Professor Sossina Haile's research group centers
on ionic conduction in solids, with the twin objectives of
understanding the mechanisms that govern ion transport, and
applying such an understanding to the development of advanced
solid electrolytes and novel solid-state electrochemical
devices. Technological applications of fast ion conductors
include batteries, sensors, ion pumps and fuel cells. It
is in this last area that Dr. Haile's work is expected to
have the most impact.
Axel van de Walle
www.its.caltech.edu/~avdw
Axel van de Walle's group focuses on designing and
exploiting software tools constituting a so-called "virtual
laboratory" where materials can be discovered, optimized
and characterized through automated high-throughput computational
techniques. These tools are being used in a number of
technological applications, including precipitation-hardened
superalloys, multicomponent semiconductors, rechargeable
batteries, lead-free solders and ion conductors for fuel
cells.
The components of this "virtual
laboratory" include: (i) First-principles
electronic structure quantum mechanical calculations
enabling the prediction of material properties
without relying on experimental
input. (ii) Efficient algorithms
to compute phase diagrams from first-principles.
(iii) Autonomous learning algorithms that "discover" structure-property
relationships in order to suggest
new candidate
materials.
Thermoelectric Materials and Engineering
thermoelectrics.caltech.edu
 The
Caltech Thermoelectrics group focuses on developing high-efficiency
materials for thermoelectric power generation. Thermoelectrics
have powered NASA deep space probes for decades. At Caltech
we are developing thermoelectric materials for sustainable
energy on Earth, for example, by converting waste heat from
the exhaust in an automobile to electricity that will recharge
the battery. At Caltech, thermoelectrics students can learn
a variety of techniques: 1) Solid State Chemistry to synthesize
compounds with complex crystal structures, 2) Materials Science
and Engineering to develop processing that produces nanostructured
composites, 3) Solid State Physics to understand and model
the various thermoelectric properties, and 4) thermoelectric
engineering to design new systems. Caltech thermoelectrics
shares group meetings and lab space with Prof. Sossina Haile,
and students often work with the facilities and thermoelectrics
scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
William Johnson
www.its.caltech.edu/~vitreloy
Professor Johnson's group does research on non-equilibrium
and metastable materials. During the past decade, they have
developed unusual metallic alloys which fail to crystallize
during solidification at low cooling rates, thus forming "bulk" glasses.
Research on the liquid alloys includes fundamental studies
of rheology, atomic diffusion, crystallization kinetics,
liquid/liquid phase separation, and the glass transition.
Research on the solid "glassy" materials includes
studies of elastic properties, and mechanisms of deformation,
flow, and fracture. The group has developed composite materials
which employ a metallic glass matrix to achieve unusual combinations
of properties for structural engineering applications.
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