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异质材料和器件的制造技术，该技术将纳米复合材料的“尺寸可调”特性所获得的功能优势与以气溶胶形式制造和交付的纳米颗粒（NP）的制造和直接写入优势结合联合收割机。它将专注于开发利用来自气溶胶源的微粒激光烧蚀（LAM）产生的纳米颗粒的制造技术，以及受益于纳米级成分变化的两个重要应用领域：a）具有高磁化的纳米结构的超磁致伸缩膜，其由于自旋重取向转变而可以在低场下被驱动，以及B）非线性光子材料和结构，由于纳米异质性增强了非线性效应以及通过相干混合纳米异质性中的有源区和无源区来相位匹配相互作用光波的能力，复合光学介质这两种应用都需要由嵌入非活性相中的活性相组成的三维纳米复合材料结构。这些纳米复合材料结构很难或不可能生产的尺寸尺度，是实际的许多设备使用现有的制造technology.The更广泛的好处，这项研究将被认为在许多应用中，需要制造方法制造毫米级的纳米复合材料制成的设备。努力将集中在磁致伸缩微阀和传感器领域，并在有效的，低成本的非线性光学光子器件。在低驱动场下提供大致动应变的磁致伸缩装置可用于控制空气动力学体（飞行器等）。并且将导致用于医疗应用和非破坏性测试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目前用于电信的光子系统中不可用的波长捷变。这些改进将提高整个网络的容量，使宽带光通信能够以低成本扩展到几乎每个家庭。拟议的研究将由一个由物理学，电气工程和材料科学的本科生，研究生和教师组成的团队进行，他们在进行多学科研究和教育方面有着良好的记录。与法国里尔中央理工学院的一个研究小组在磁致伸缩装置方面进行了强有力的合作。此外，还将作出新的努力，从一所历来有少数民族就读的大学（Prairie View A M）培训和招聘高素质的暑期实习生，并与其材料、微设计和微制造中心开展研究合作。

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.