Research Areas
Transparent electronics, oxide electronics, printed electronics, MIM electronics, thin-film photovoltaics, and nanolaminate metamaterials.
Research Description
Transparent electronics is a nascent technology involving the realization of invisible electronic circuits. For this purpose, we are developing new types of transparent materials, devices, and circuits.
The idea underlying intelligent luminescence is to first integrate sensor, processor, and actuator capabilities together into a smart pixel, and then to densely interconnect such smart pixels via nonlinear feedback in such a manner that emergent behavior characteristic of intelligence is achieved. We believe that transparent electronics/optoelectronics offers an excellent platform for constructing such intelligent luminescent systems. As an initial step in this direction, we are working to fabricate first a transparent pixel and then a transparent display.
Thin-film solar cells constitute an attractive approach to clean, renewable, and affordable energy. Some materials that we have recently been exploring appear to have properties well-suited to photovoltaic applications. We believe that by employing such materials in a pin double heterojunction configuration, we will be able to improve thin-film solar cell efficiency and lifetime using inexpensive, environmentally ‘green’ material constituents.
The goal of our low-cost electronics effort is to identify appropriate thin-film materials, devices, manufacturing routes, and applications to achieve electronic functionality at a reduced cost.
This research is being undertaken in collaboration with Professor Keszler’s & Sleight’s, Tate’s, and Chang’s groups in the Departments of Chemistry, Physics, and Chemical Engineering, respectively.
Applications of Research
Applications of our research include next generation displays, lighting, solar cells, and smart windows. Possible applications of transparent electronics include select transistors for active-matrix liquid crystal displays and transparent displays.