NIRT: Nanoscale Manufacturing - Nonlinear Nanocomposites for Magnetostrictive Actuators and Photonic Devices

该项目的目标是开发纳米复合材料和纳米非均质材料和器件的制造技术，将纳米复合材料的“尺寸可调”特性获得的功能优势与纳米颗粒(NP)的制造和直接写入优势相结合，并以气雾剂的形式制造和交付。它将集中于开发利用激光烧蚀来自气溶胶源的微粒子(LAM)产生的纳米粒子的制造技术，以及受益于纳米尺度上的成分变化的两个重要应用领域：a)具有高磁化强度的纳米结构超磁致伸缩薄膜，由于自旋重新取向转变可以在低场下驱动，以及b)非线性光子材料和结构，由于纳米非均匀增强了非线性效应，并且通过在纳米复合光学介质中相干地混合有源区和无源区来相位匹配相互作用的光波，从而提高了光转换效率。这两种应用都需要由嵌入在非活性相中的活性相组成的三维纳米复合结构。这些纳米复合材料结构很难或不可能按尺寸生产，而这些尺寸对许多使用现有制造技术的器件是可行的。这项研究的更广泛的好处将在许多需要制造由纳米复合材料制成的毫米级器件的应用中感受到。工作重点将集中在磁致伸缩微阀和换能器以及有效、低成本的非线性光学光子器件领域。磁致伸缩装置在低驱动磁场下提供大的驱动应变，可用于控制空气动力体(飞行器等)。并将导致用于医疗应用和无损检测的改进的定向超声换能器阵列。低成本的非线性光学光子器件将增加波长敏捷性，这是目前用于电信的光子系统所不具备的。这些改进将提高整体网络容量，使宽带光通信能够以低成本扩展到几乎每个家庭。这项拟议的研究将由一个由来自物理、电气工程和材料科学的本科生、研究生和教职员工组成的团队进行，他们在进行多学科研究和教育方面有良好的记录。与法国里尔中央学院的一个研究团队在磁致伸缩设备方面进行了强有力的合作。此外，将开展一项新的努力，旨在培训和招聘一所大学(Prairie View A&amp；M)的高素质暑期实习生，该大学历来由少数族裔就读，并启动与他们的材料、微设计和微制造中心的研究合作。

The goal of this project is to develop manufacturing techniques for nanocomposite and nano-heterogeneous materials and devices that combine the functional advantages obtained from the "size-tunable" properties of nanocomposite materials with the fabrication and direct-write advantages available from nanoparticles (NPs) manufactured and delivered in aerosol form. It will focus on developing manufacturing techniques utilizing NPs generated by Laser Ablation of Microparticles (LAM) from an aerosol source, and on two important application areas that benefit from compositional variations on the nanoscale: a) nanostructured giant magnetostrictive films with high magnetization that can be driven at low fields due to a spin reorientation transition, and b) nonlinear photonic materials and structures that have increased optical conversion efficiency due to both the enhancement of the nonlinear effects by nano-heterogeneity and the ability to phase match the interacting optical waves by coherently mixing active and inactive regions in a nano-composite optical media. Both applications require three-dimensional nanocomposite structures consisting of an active phase embedded in an inactive phase. These nanocomposite structures are difficult or impossible to produce in size scales that are practical for many devices using existing manufacturing technologies.The broader benefits of this research will be felt in many applications that require manufacturing methods for fabricating millimeter-scale devices made from nanocomposites. Effort will be focused in the areas of magnetostrictive micro-valves and transducers and in effective, low-cost nonlinear optical photonic devices. Magnetostrictive devices that provide large actuation strains at low driving fields can be used to control aerodynamic bodies (aircraft, etc.) and will result in improved directional ultrasonic transducer arrays for medical applications and for non-destructive testing. Low-cost nonlinear optical photonic devices will add wavelength agility not now available in current photonic systems for telecommunication. Such improvements will increase overall network capacity that will enable the low-cost extension of wide-band optical communications to nearly every home. The proposed research will be performed by a team composed of undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty from Physics, Electrical Engineering, and Materials Science that have a proven track record in conducting multidisciplinary research and education. A strong collaboration on magnetostrictive devices exists with a research team at Ecole Centrale de Lille, France. In addition, a new effort will be undertaken aimed at training and recruiting highly qualified summer internship students from a university (Prairie View A&M) historically attended by minorities and at initiating a research collaboration with their Center for Materials, Microdesign, and Microfabrication.