By Stephen Hudson, M.Ed The Design and Technology Roosevelt High School North East ISD, San Antonio With Faculty Mentor Haiyan Wang, PhD Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Dr. Haiyan Wang – Functional Thin Film Processing and Characterization Group

A PC as thin as a piece of paper with more computing power than todays devices… Dr. Haiyan Wang – Functional Thin Film Processing and Characterization Group

A home where the roof tiles no longer need replacing AND which generate enough electricity for 100% of the familys needs… Dr. Haiyan Wang – Functional Thin Film Processing and Characterization Group

Nuclear Energy Plants with fewer maintenance issues on critical parts… Dr. Haiyan Wang – Functional Thin Film Processing and Characterization Group

These are just a few of the upcoming applications based on the research being done in Dr. Wangs labs at Texas A&M Dr. Haiyan Wang – Functional Thin Film Processing and Characterization Group

Pulsed Laser Deposition Dr. Haiyan Wang – Functional Thin Film Processing and Characterization Group

PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) Thermal Evaporation Electro-deposition Magnetron sputtering (DC, RF) Pulsed Laser Deposition MBE (molecular beam epitaxy) CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) APCVD (atmospheric CVD) LPCVD (low-pressure CVD) PECVD (Plasma-enhanced CVD) LECVD (Laser-enhanced CVD) MOCVD (Metal-organic CVD) Solution based deposition techniques Sol-gel PAD (Polymer assisted deposition) Dr. Haiyan Wang – Functional Thin Film Processing and Characterization Group

Characterization, when used in materials science, refers to the use of external techniques to probe into the internal structure and properties of a material. Characterization can take the form of actual materials testing, or analysis, using, in our case, a Scanning Electron Microscope (non-destructive) or a Transmission Electron Microscope (destructive). Dr. Haiyan Wang – Functional Thin Film Processing and Characterization Group

Scanning Electron Microscope (Non- destructive)

Dr. Haiyan Wang – Functional Thin Film Processing and Characterization Group In-situ Transmission Electron Microscope

Once the synthesis and analyses are complete, Dr. Wangs team looks for desirable properties for applications such as: Dr. Haiyan Wang – Functional Thin Film Processing and Characterization Group High temperature tolerance Radiation tolerance High temperature super- conductivity Ferroelectric materials Thin Film Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Metallic Thin Films Bio-compatible films Soft Films

Participate in all aspects of the research objective: Synthesis, Characterization, Property Correlation Dr. Haiyan Wang – Functional Thin Film Processing and Characterization Group

Familiarization with the tools used in this research: Synthesis: Pulsed Laser, Sputter Magnetron Characterization: Transmission Electron Microscope, In-situ TEM, Scanning Electron Microscope, X-Ray Diffraction, Structure-Property Correlation: Vibrating Sample Magnetometer, Physical Property Measurement System, Deposition for High Temp Superconductor Dr. Haiyan Wang – Functional Thin Film Processing and Characterization Group

Data Generation and interpretation 2 Weeks with Dr. Zhang, using the same plan, primarily focusing on Mechanical properties. Dr. Haiyan Wang – Functional Thin Film Processing and Characterization Group Synthesis Character - ization Structure – Property Corr.

Dr. Haiyan Wang – Functional Thin Film Processing and Characterization Group Simple Cubic Face Center Cubic (FCC) Body Center Cubic (BCC) Hexagonal Close Packed (HCP) Diamond (Cubic) Perovskite (cubic) Simple Cubic Face Center Cubic (FCC) Body Center Cubic (BCC) Hexagonal Close Packed (HCP) Diamond (Cubic) Perovskite (cubic)

Dr. Haiyan Wang – Functional Thin Film Processing and Characterization Group First week: What I did with Math this Summer PPT I will do one, too, to introduce the idea of Thin Films Special Right Triangles Unit: use the Simple Cube structure of the lattice to measure the distance between atoms. Given a specific desirable property related to density, which lattice would you pick? Why? Circle Unit: Planar Density. Deciding Fracture points. Volume Unit: Build models of the three basic Cube structures. Decide which model is densest and provide accurate calculations. When is porosity desirable?

Dr. Haiyan Wang and Dr. Xinghang Zhang Joon Hyan Lee, PhD Candidate Zhenxing Bi, PhD Candidate Logan Lu, PhD Candidate Chenfong Tsai, PhD Candidate Dr. Haiyan Wang – Functional Thin Film Processing and Characterization Group Nuclear Power Institute