CAREER: Modeling Nanostructured Systems Outside of Equilibrium

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).TECHNICAL SUMMARY This CAREER award supports theoretical and computational research integrated with education to study nonequilibrium nanostructured systems with educational activities for undergraduate students as well as for current and future K-12 science teachers. The research program addresses a fundamental challenge of understanding nanopattern self-assembly in both soft and solid complex systems, particularly in strained semiconductor epilayers and block copolymer thin films, through modeling, analysis, and simulation across multiple scales. The overall research goal is to improve our understanding of the nonequilibrium and nonlinear dynamic processes that occur in nanoscale phases in complex material systems. The research will emphasize two promising areas in nanofabrication: strained film epitaxy, particularly the mechanisms controlling properties of surface/interface nanostructures and compositional profiles; and self-assembling block copolymer thin films, particularly the achieving of long range order in nanostructured but defected copolymer patterns used in soft-template nanolithography. All of these theoretical efforts will be compared and connected with experimental results through the PI's collaboration with experimental groups. The educational component of this CAREER proposal will integrate the PI?s research expertise in modeling and simulation into educational and outreach efforts in two major efforts. The first effort will promote science education for K-12 teachers in the Detroit area by providing interdisciplinary research opportunities. This project will provide a unique opportunity for direct interaction between pre-service teachers and experienced in-service teachers through establishing one-to-one research subgroups. The evaluation of this project will be based on the effects of teachers' classroom applications and the impact on their high school students who are mostly underrepresented minorities. The second effort will enhance physics education at Wayne State University by developing new undergraduate curricula with the aim of encouraging a more diverse body of students to study physics. NONTECHNICAL SUMMARY This CAREER award supports theoretical and computational research integrated with education to study the process by which materials grow and organize themselves on length scales down to one hundred thousand times smaller than a human hair. The research will be integrated into educational activities for undergraduate students as well as for current and future K-12 science teachers. One of the major challenges in manufacturing of modern devices is the growth or assembly of embedded structures of atoms and molecules. This research addresses a fundamental challenge of understanding how these ?nanostructure? can self assemble into complex systems using a combination of modeling, analysis, and simulation across multiple length scales. The research plan will focus on study these effects in semiconductors and in the self-assembly of thin films made from large chain-like molecules with repeating molecular subunits, as well as developing more efficient theoretical approaches for carrying out simulations in these areas. Theory will be compared and connected with experimental results through the PI?s collaborations with experimental groups. The educational component of this CAREER proposal will integrate the PI?s research expertise in modeling and simulation into educational and outreach efforts in two major efforts. The first effort will promote science education for K-12 teachers in the Detroit area by providing interdisciplinary research opportunities. This project will provide a unique opportunity for direct interaction between pre-service teachers and experienced in-service teachers through establishing one-to-one research subgroups. The evaluation of this project will be based on the effects of teachers' classroom applications and the impact on their high school students who are mostly underrepresented minorities. The second effort will enhance physics education at Wayne State University by developing new undergraduate curricula with the aim of encouraging a more diverse body of students to study physics.