Research in Electronics and Applied Physics

The mission of the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics (IREAP) is to advance modern science through nationally competitive research and educational programs that are interdisciplinary between physical science and engineering. The flow of knowledge between basic science and engineering at IREAP is bi-directional: we apply our basic science skills to problems of practical importance, and we apply our engineering skills to aid fundamental scientific exploration.

Many IREAP scientists have joint appointments with the Departments of Physics, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mathematics, Materials Science and Engineering, and the Institute for Physical Science and Technology. Graduate students from these departments work on their research dissertation projects at IREAP. We also have an active undergraduate research program that allows students to explore leading-edge topics.

IREAP's main research areas are listed below:

Maryland Center for Integrated Nano Science and Engineering (M-CINSE)
Nanoscale science and engineering promise to change our world profoundly, from the man-made devices we experience in electronics and medical care to fundamental understanding in the physical sciences, life sciences and engineering. Accordingly, nano is now a centerpiece of the international research landscape.

To promote and centrally support the nano science and engineering community at Maryland, the campus recently launched the Maryland Center for Integrated Nano Science and Engineering (M-CINSE) as a partnership between engineering, the physical sciences, and the life sciences. Organized as a Center within IREAP, M-CINSE is housed in the Kim Engineering and Applied Sciences Building.

M-CINSE is driven by two fundamental goals. First, it emphasizes close integration of science and engineering in nano research in order to provide an optimum engine for technology, products, and fundamental discoveries in the exciting and relatively uncharted waters of nanoscale science and technology. Second, it seeks to enhance the coherence and effectiveness of the Maryland nano community. Contact Dr. Patrick O’Shea, 301 405 4977 poshea@umd.edu

Fusion Energy Research
The fire of the stars and the Sun comes from a process called fusion. To ignite this fire, hydrogen gas has to be heated to millions of degrees. If we could do this on earth, we could use such “starfire” in our power plants to generate electricity. Hydrogen is readily extracted from water - so all nations would have ready access to it. A fusion power plant would produce no greenhouse gas emissions. Developing controlled fusion on earth is a grand scientific challenge. Tremendous progress has been made over three decades in what is called "Magnetic Confinement Fusion". The MCF concept holds the hot hydrogen plasma with magnetic fields as it is heated. This requires complex electromagnets, making it expensive. At IREAP, we have an innovative idea: we spin the magnetic fields to hold the hydrogen in centrifugally. We can then get away with simpler electromagnets and - potentially – generate fusion energy more efficiently. Our experiments to test our idea have just begun.
Contact: Dr. Adil Hassam: (301) 405-1417, hassam@glue.umd.edu

Plasma Theory and High Performance Computation
Plasma turbulence plays a dominant role in many interesting problems, and is a hot topic in the plasma theory group at the University of Maryland. On earth, turbulence causes unwanted rapid cooling of the fuel in the core of power plants designed to obtain energy from controlled thermonuclear fusion. In outer space, plasma turbulence regulates the rate of star formation and of accretion of matter onto black holes. We have active research projects in these areas, with particular emphases on high performance computation, advanced algorithm development, and theory. In the area of computation, Maryland scientists use millions of CPU-hours per year on the largest civilian supercomputer in the United States to model a range of processes, from microscopic scales to whole-device phenomena.
Contact: Dr James Drake: (301) 405-1471, drake@glue.umd.edu; or Dr. William Dorland: (301) 405-1608, bdorland@glue.umd.edu

Chaos and Nonlinear Dynamics
Fundamental ideas of chaos, a study of complex nonlinear systems that behave in unpredictable manner, find application in such diverse disciplines as biology, economics, chemistry, engineering, fluid mechanics, and physics, just to name a few. The importance of this field of study grew with a widespread availability of computers for numerical simulations and the demonstration of chaos in various systems. IREAP has active experimental and theoretical programs in the study of weather, earth’s magnetic core, lasers, particle beams, granular media, and biological systems. In 2000, US News and World Report ranked the Maryland Chaos Program number one in the US.
Contact: Dr. Daniel P. Lathrop: (301) 405-1594 dpl@complex.umd.edu

Particle Beams and Accelerators
Particle accelerators, which produce high-energy, high-speed beams of charged particles, are ubiquitous. Small accelerators have found application in many areas of our lives: microwave ovens, radars, television sets, hospitals (for imaging and treatment), industry (for sterilization, imaging, and waste treatment), and microwave communications systems. Large ones are used for exploration of the fundamental structures of matter at the molecular, atomic and nuclear levels. Our research focuses on developing better and brighter accelerator and beam systems. Spin-off research involves such diverse areas as free-electron lasers, fusion energy, and the study of the dynamics of galaxies.
Contact: Dr. Patrick O’Shea: (301) 405-4977, poshea@umd.edu

High Power Microwaves
The research on high power microwave generation exploits relativistic effects in beams of electrons traveling in vacuum, close to the speed of light, that generate microwaves at power levels beyond the present state of the art. On type of generator being investigated in the research is the gyrotron, which is a high power source of millimeter wave energy. On of the applications for this high power source it heating and controlling of plasma in fusion reactors. Gyrotron may also be applied in certain types of nonlethal weapons, precision radars, communications systems, high-energy accelerators, and materials processing. There also is research done to evaluate the effect of high power microwaves on integrated electronics (e.g. computers).
Contact: Dr. Victor Granatstein: (301) 405-4956, vlg@glue.umd.edu

Nanofabrication with Focused Ion Beams
Focused ion beams (FIBs) are used to remove and add material at nanometer dimensions. Our laboratory (Laboratory for Ion Beam Research and Applications, LIBRA) is developing new applications for FIBs, for example for the repair of masks, for fault diagnosis, and for circuit restructuring. These techniques are widely used in the integrated circuits industry now, but are posing new challenges as circuit dimensions shrink into the nanometer regime. The techniques have a wide variety of research applications, some of which are pursued in our lab and include: nanostructuring metal films and ultra-thin optical fibers, fabricating nanodimension mechanical resonators, and patterning ferroelectric structures.
Contact: Dr John Melngailis: (301) 405-4916, melng@glue.umd.edu

Materials Processing with Plasmas
The research in Materials Processing with Plasmas is aimed at efficient production of nano-structures using plasma processing and the use of low temperature plasmas in tailoring surface properties of materials. Plasmas have become indispensable for advanced materials processing in many high-tech industries, but not only. The microelectronics industry employs plasma processes for thin film etching, deposition, and surface modification for insulators, conductors, diamond films, and high-temperature superconductors. Plasmas are also used to harden the surfaces of cutting tools and to modify surfaces of plastics to allow paint application.

The research at IREAP utilizes an array of state-of-the-art tools for plasma-based etching, synthesis or modification of materials. The majority of our research is aimed at exploring the science required for optimal plasma processing.
Contact: Dr. Gottlieb Oehrlein: (301) 405-8931, oehrlein@eng.umd.edu

Materials Processing with Microwaves
Processing materials with microwave energy offers significant advantages over conventional techniques. It is a promising but complex process involving the absorption of electromagnetic energy, heat transport within the material, and densification. Microwave heating, which can reach very high heating rates (150 to perhaps 1000oC), enables production of materials with superior or tailored properties that cannot be achieved with other means. The research at IREAP has been focused on understanding fundamental questions in the area and manufacturing materials with superior properties of interest to the commercial and defense industries. Examples of recent and current topics explored at IREAP include: advanced composite materials for dental applications, use of microwave for high speed drying of paper in printing industry, use of ceramics and catalysts in automobile industry for reducing pollution from exhaust emission of trucks, buses and locomotives.
Contact: Dr. Yuval Carmel: (301) 405-4976, carmel@glue.umd.edu

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