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Caltech
Applied Physics and Materials Science Division of Engineering and Applied Science

Research in the department spans an extraordinary breadth — from nanomechanics, nanophotonics, and optomechanics, to materials physics and chemistry, plasmonics, photonics, and device physics, to biophysics, mechanical properties of materials, additive manufacturing, nanofabrication, and the synthesis and characterization of quantum materials. This integrated approach empowers us to reveal the fundamental principles of how materials and emergent materials systems behave, and to build upon them to engineer breakthroughs in quantum science, energy technologies, biomedical applications, and beyond.

Research Areas

Biomedical Devices

  • Developing nanomaterials-based flexible and wearable sensors for personalized health monitoring. (Gao)
  • Studying micro/nanoscale active colloids and motors for biomedical applications such as rapid drug delivery. (Gao)

Biophysics

  • Nanostructured materials for biological applications, mechanics and dynamics of biomaterials (Daraio)
  • Natural and synthetic regulatory circuits in living cells (Elowitz)
  • Mechanics of macromolecular assemblies (Phillips)
  • Nanofabrication techniques for DNA manipulation (Scherer)
  • Biophysical flows generated by Marangoni forces (Troian)

Catalytic Materials

  • Predicting reaction mechanisms, activation free energies, and turn-over frequencies for heterogeneous catalysts (N2 reduction to NH3, selective oxidation and ammoxidation) and electrocatalysts (CO2 reduction, water splitting, N2 reduction). (Goddard)
  • Designing electrically-driven catalysts which convert carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water into useful chemicals and materials. (Manthiram)
  • Development of new chemical reactions for fine chemical synthesis that leverage heterogeneous chemo-, bio-, or electrocatalytic strategies. (Nelson)

Ceramics and Composites

  • Researching ceramics that maintain strength and robustness to temperatures in excess of 1500°C. (Faber)

Computational Materials Science

  • Investigating electrons in materials with Angstrom space and femtosecond time resolutions, with applications in energy conversion, novel electronics and optoelectronics, and ultrafast spectroscopy. (Bernardi)
  • Creating new materials and the optimization of materials processing. (Bhattacharya)
  • Computing the free energy of materials at the level of atoms and electrons. Calculating the stabilities of material phases, and properties such as thermal expansion, elastic moduli and thermal conductivity. (Fultz)
  • Studying the electronic noise of hot electrons under non-equilibrium conditions using ab-initio methods, with applications in low-noise semiconductor devices. (Minnich)
  • Multiscale reactive simulations to describe SEI formation in Li metal anode batteries, new electrolytes and new cathodes for improved stability. (Goddard)

Computational Physics

  • Development and application of first-principles calculations of materials based on density functional theory and excited state methods (Bernardi)
  • Continuum and non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations of thin films far from equilibrium (Troian)
  • Atomistic studies of materials and processes (Goddard)

Electron Diffraction

  • The study of electron diffraction methods (e.g. MicroED and 4DSTEM) for characterization of beam sensitive soft materials and hard materials. (Nelson)
  • Quantum crystallographic methods and dynamical theory of scattering for material characterization and structure/function relationships. (Nelson)

Energy Materials and Storage

  • In collaboration with the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, we are researching how to build an efficient, fully-integrated photoelectrochemical (PEC) device for the production of renewable fuels including hydrogen (near term) and hydrocarbons (long term). (Atwater)
  • The creation of new scientific instrumentation using ultrafast X-ray and AC electrical pulses to understand transport and storage in a range of material classes. (Cushing)
  • Developing thermal and environmental barrier coatings for power generation components to enhance engine efficiency via characterization of plasma-sprayed coatings. (Faber)
  • Generating new materials that store hydrogen by surface physisorption or internal chemisorption, with an eye towards applications in rechargeable batteries, fuel cell vehicles, and a collaboration with JPL on a possible future mission to the planet Venus. (Fultz)
  • Developing next-generation battery materials from sustainable resources and probing their charge storage mechanisms. (See)
  • Developing and optimizing doped graphene nanomaterials as anodes for energy storage applications in supercapacitors and lithium-ion batteries. (Yeh)

Gas and Fluid Mechanics

  • Fluid physics and the dynamics of turbulence (Dimotakis)
  • Pattern formation and non-normality in nanoscale flows (Troian)

Metamaterials and Metasurfaces

  • Investigating electromagnetic metamaterials which are artificial materials comprised of nanostructures, with special interest in two of the most famous theoretically predicted optical functionalities of metamaterials: epsilon-near-zero and negative index metamaterials. (Atwater)
  • Designing and characterizing phononic metamaterials, which are structured materials with specific architectures, selected to control sound, ultrasound and stress waves in solids. Study of fundamental phenomena to advance RF telecommunication systems, sensors and medical technology. (Daraio)
  • Designing plasmonic vortices based on nanoscale metal-dielectric-metal (MDM) meta-structures to control the opto-spintronic, opto-valleytronic and topological excitations in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides. (Yeh)

Nanostructures

  • Studying the quantum properties of surface plasmons both for fundamental insights into their physics as well as for applications in quantum information science. (Atwater)
  • Investigating microwire solar fuel devices which have the potential to replace fossil fuels. (Atwater)
  • Building artificial materials and heterostructures on the nanoscale using thin film deposition techniques. (Falson)
  • Creating extremely strong yet ultra-light materials by capitalizing on the hierarchical design of 3-dimensional nano-architectures. (Greer)
  • Developing and applying the atomic layer etching process for nanofabrication, which permits the removal of a monolayer of material with atomic precision. (Minnich)
  • Developing "quantum straintronics" by nanoscale strain engineering of van der Waals materials (e.g., graphene, hexagonal boron nitride, transition metal dichalcogenides) to achieve strain-controlled properties such as bandstructures, electronic correlation, optical bandgaps, and superconductivity. (Yeh)

Photonics, Optics, and Quantum Electronics

  • Interdisciplinary materials and device research, spanning photonics and electronics and with applications in Si-based photonics, plasmonics, renewable energy and mechanically active thin film devices (Atwater)
  • Theory and ab initio computation of light-matter interaction in materials (Bernardi)
  • Development of new ultrafast spectroscopy and photonics techniques. (Cushing)
  • On chip quantum photonic devices, like quantum bits and quantum memories, and flat optics based on dielectric metasurfaces (Faraon)
  • Nonlinear photonic devices and systems for quantum optics, optical computing and information processing, and mid-infrared spectroscopy and sensing. (Marandi)
  • Superconducting qubits, quantum optics, and chip-based devices for multi-physics information processing (Mirhosseini)
  • Nanophotonics, quantum optics, and optomechanics for applications in precision measurement and quantum information science (Painter)
  • Nanostructure fabrication for opto-electronic, magneto-optic and electronic devices (Scherer)
  • Quantum-limited amplifiers at microwave frequency, applications of advanced superconductors, opto-mechanical structures to interface with atomic physics, preparation of mechanical structures at quantum limits (Schwab)
  • Contact-free patterning of nanofilms for micro-optical applications (Troian)
  • Nonlinear optics in high-Q microcaviities, frequency microcombs, optical soliton physics (Vahala)
  • Quantum imaging and physics, photoacoustic tomography, light-speed compressed ultrafast photography, wavefront shaping/time-reversal optics. (Wang)
  • Quantum well semiconductor lasers, nonlinear optics and lightwave communication (Yariv)

Photovoltaic Materials and Devices

  • Designing and building a spectrum-splitting photovoltaic module that will achieve unprecedentedly high efficiency, as well as investigating several alternative materials that can potentially replace or complement traditional silicon photovoltaics. (Atwater)
  • Pushing towards simultaneous femtosecond / angstrom resolved, electron and X-ray spectroscopies for studying interfaces and photoexcited processes in photovoltaic materials. (Cushing)

Plasma Physics

  • Fusion, magnetospheric, solar, and astrophysical plasmas; ice dusty plasmas; fundamental plasma physics including waves, magnetic helicity, reconnection (Bellan)
  • Electrohydrodynamic simulations of ion beam micropropulsion systems (Troian)

Polymers

  • Developing stimuli-responsive polymers with a focus on molecular design. (Robb)
  • Structural elucidation  and mechanistic study of naturally occurring and synthetic polymers. (Nelson)
  • Development of new chemical reactions for the synthesis and post-synthetic modification of organic polymers. (Nelson)

Organic Electronic Materials

  • We study biological structures and compounds, to create new, synthetic polymers for temperature and IR sensors, and other engineering applications. We analyze their molecular architecture and tailor their properties, to optimize their sensing performance and add functionalities. (Daraio)

Quantum Science and Engineering

Solid State Devices

  • Quantum mechanics for the electronic wave functions of large molecules and crystals (Goddard III)
  • Nanostructure fabrication for opto-electronic, magneto-optic and electronic devices (Scherer)
  • Fabrication of mechanical structures coupled to superconducting circuits and devices for the study of quantum physics at large scale (Schwab)
  • Ultrafast electronic processes and nanoscale devices (Vahala)
  • Semiconductor lasers and optoelectronic devices (Yariv)

Solids and Materials

  • Charge carrier dynamics in materials using first-principles calculations Ultrafast dynamics of excited electrons in materials (Bernardi)
  • Development of new ultrafast spectroscopy and photonics techniques. (Cushing)
  • Highly nonlinear dynamics, phononic crystal, multiscale metamaterials, nanofabrication (Daraio)
  • Superfluid helium devices at very low temperatures (Schwab)

Thermodynamics and Phase Transformations

  • Studying emergent electronic and magnetic phases in correlated materials in extreme environments including low temperature and high magnetic field. (Falson)
  • Conducting neutron and x-ray inelastic scattering experiments to understand how entropy changes with pressure and temperature, and for measuring local atom distortions during the diffusive jumps of hydrogen atoms in materials. (Fultz)
  • Investigation of unconventional superconductors with such novel properties as unconventional pairing symmetries, strong electronic correlation, non-trivial topology, and pressure-induced superconductivity. (Yeh)