FIP Seminar: Organic and Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Thin Film Deposition by Resonant Infrared, Matrix-Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation

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Wed, 04/12/2017 - 12:00 to 13:00

Presenter

Dr. Adrienne Stiff-Roberts - Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University

Over the past fifteen years, matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation (MAPLE) has been developed to deposit organic thin films, inorganic nanoparticles, and hybrid organic-inorganic nanocomposites. One variation of the MAPLE technique, resonant infrared matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation (RIR-MAPLE), reduces the laser energy (e.g., Er:YAG laser ~2.94μm peak wavelength) in order to minimize polymer degradation. In addition, because the frequency of the IR laser energy is resonant with OH bond vibrational modes in water, a frozen emulsion (comprising a mixture of the guest material dissolved in an organic solvent and water) is used as the target. Therefore, the unique advantage of emulsion-based RIR-MAPLE is that most of the energy from the IR laser is absorbed by water in the frozen emulsion, which evaporates and gently transfers the guest material to the substrate with minimal solvent exposure and degradation. In this talk, RIR-MAPLE deposition of organic and hybrid films will be described, as well as application to energy materials.

Adrienne D. Stiff-Roberts is Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University, and she currently serves as the Education Director of the Research Triangle Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (RT-MRSEC).  Her current research interests include polymer, nanoparticle, and organic/inorganic hybrid nanocomposite thin film deposition by resonant-infrared matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation (RIR-MAPLE); materials characterization of organic and hybrid nanocomposite thin films; and the design, fabrication, and characterization of organic-based devices, especially infrared photodetectors, photovoltaic solar cells, and multi-functional sensors.     

Dr. Stiff-Roberts received both the B.S. degree in physics from Spelman College and the B.E.E. degree in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1999.  She received an M.S.E. in electrical engineering and a Ph.D. in applied physics in 2001 and 2004, respectively, from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.  Dr. Stiff-Roberts received the David and Lucile Packard Foundation Graduate Scholars Fellowship and the AT&T Labs Fellowship Program Grant from 1999-2004.  She is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2006), the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award (2007), the IEEE Early Career Award in Nanotechnology of the Nanotechnology Council (2009), and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2009). She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Pi Sigma, the Materials Research Society, the National Society of Black Physicists, the American Physical Society, the American Chemical Society, and she is a senior member of IEEE.