Research Interests

We focus on the controlled synthesis and assembly of nanomaterials and nanostuctures, with emphasis on the exploration and manipulation of materials' physical and chemical properties and their potential applications. Most of our work Implements a multidisciplinary approach, including chemistry, materials science, physics and biology.

We are interested in a wide variety of materials, such as metals, oxides, and chalcogenides, with different electrical, magnetic, optical and semiconducting properties. Our research combines chemical reaction principles, theoretical calculations and simulations, and modern materials characterization methods for the discovery of novel phenomena exhibited by materials in the nanoscale.

Spintronics

Traditional electronics devices rely on the transport and storage of electronic charge. Spintronics (a neologism meaning "spin transport electronics"), also known as magnetoelectronics, is an emerging technology which exploits the intrinsic spin of electrons and its associated magnetic moment, in addition to its fundamental electronic charge, in solid-state devices. Spintronics exploits electron spin, creating a new class of devices that can potentially be scaled down to nano-dimensions and can also provide additional functionality.

We are interested in the growth and characterization of novel magnetic thin films by a variety of deposition techniques, including chemical vapor deposition, pulsed laser deposition, etc. for the fabrication of devices, such as magnetic tunnel junctions and spin-based semiconductors, and their application for storage, memory, and logic-based devices.

Nanoparticles and Nanoclusters

Nanomaterials are of great interest for a wide range of applications, including catalysis, data storage, biotechnology/biomedicine, etc. In particular, the synthesis of monodisperse uniform-sized nanocrystals using solution-based methods is of key importance for these applications because of their strong dimension-dependent physical and chemical properties.

We are interested in the synthesis of functional oxides and chalcogenides in the form of nanoparticles and other nanostructures with controlled shape, size, structure, etc.

Biotechnology in Nanomaterials

In addition to traditional methods for the synthesis of inorganic nanomaterials, novel approaches are being developed that exploit advances in biotechnology. The bio-inspired approach to materials synthesis has successfully utilized cells, viruses, and biomolecules, such as nucleic acids, proteins, etc., to produce inorganic nanomaterials with controlled crystal morphology, phase structure, and size, under mild conditions.

In our research, for example, phase display techniques are used to identify peptide sequences with high specificity to particular inorganic materials and unique crystal orientations. By genetically engineering phages, they can be utilized as suitable templates for the synthesis and assembly of a variety of inorganic nanomaterials for energy-related applications.