Professor of Materials Science and Engineering

Director, Materials Research Institute

BS, physics, 1965 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

PhD, plasma physics, 1970 Princeton University

Contact Info

e-mail: r-chang "at" northwestern.edu

 

Nanoscale materials design, synthesis, and device fabrication

Our group focuses on the following studies:

Unconventional Solar Cell Design, Fabrication and Analysis: Using state-of-the-art materials science and technology approaches, we are constructing one of a kind high efficiency solar cells.

Nanostructured Carbon Sheets, Tubes and Molecules: Recently we developed a technique whereby large quantities of nano-structured carbon materials can be grown at high temperatures. These very high-quality nanomaterials have been used to fabricate flat panel displays and energy-generation and storage devices.

Photonic crystals: The fabrication of ZnO-based photonic crystals that can also lase has been an important part of the group research. We are currently imbedding quantum dots into these materials to study resonant effects for highly sensitive detection of molecules.

Amorphous Semiconducting Oxide Films: We have been studying a class of unique complex amorphous oxide films which have high optical transparency and electron mobility. A fundamental understanding of this exotic material system will lead to the development of a new generation of transparent field effect integrated circuits and energy systems.

Nanostructured Plasmonic Materials in the Infrared: We have started the investigation of 2-D and 3D oxide-based plasmonic materialsfor the purpose of molecular detection and manipulation in the infrared region of the spectrum.  This effort will advance the understanding of molecular chemistry and dynamics.

Associations and Awards

• Member, International Advisory Board of NIMS, Japan
• Member, "Visionary Board" of MINATEC, CEA, France
• General Secretary & Founding President, International Union of Materials Research Societies (IUMRS)
• Materials Research Society (MRS): President, 1989; Fellow, 2008; Woody Award, 1987; Councilor, 1986-8 & 1992-4
• Honorary Member of Materials Research Societies of India, Japan and Korea
• Siu Lien Ling Wong Fellow, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999
• Fellow, American Vacuum Society
• NSF Director's Distinguished Teaching Scholar Award, 2005

Selected Publications

"Materials, Interfaces, and Photon Confinement in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells," B. Lee, D.K. Hwang, P.J. Guo, et al., J. Physical Chem B, 114 (45), pages 14582-14591 (Nov 18, 2010).

"All-Amorphous-Oxide Transparent, Flexible Thin-Film Transistors: Efficacy of Bilayer Gate Dielectrics," J. Liu, D.B. Buchholz, J.W. Hennek, et al. Journal of the Americal Chemical Society, 132 (34), pages 11934-11942 (September 1, 2010).

"Five-fold reduction of lasing threshold near the first Gamma L-pseudogap of ZnO inverse opals," M. Scharrer, H. Noh, X.H. Wu, et al. Journal of Optics, 12 (2), article number: 024007 (February, 2010).

"One-dimensional long-range plasmonic-photomic structures," W. Mu, D.B. Bucholz, M. Sukharev, et al. Optics Letters, 35 (4), pages 550-2 (February 15, 2010).

"Photonic bandgap engineering with inverse opal multistacks fo different refractive index contrasts," D.K. Hwang, H. Noh, H. Cao, et al., Applied Physics Letters, 95 (9), article number: 091101 (August 31, 2009).

"Modeling and simulation for dye-sensitized solar cells," V. Yong, S.T. Ho, R.P.H. Chang, Applied Physics Letters, 92 (14), article number: 143506 (April 7, 2008).

"p-Type semiconducting nickel oxide as an efficiency-enhancing anode interfacial layer in polymer bulk-heterojunction solar cells," M.D. Irwin, B. Bucholz, A.W. Hains, et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105 (8), pages 2783-2787 (February 26, 2008).

"Fabrication of ZnO nanorods and nanotubes in aqueous solutions," Q.C. Li, V. Kumar, Y. Li, et al. Chemistry of Materials, 17 (5), pages 1001-1006 (March 8, 2005).

"A nanotube-based field-emission flat panel display," Q.H. Wang, A.A. Setlur, J.M. Lauerhaas, et al. Applied Physics Letters, 72 (22), pages 2912-2913 (June 1, 1998).

"Random laser action in semiconductor powder," H. Cao, Y.G. Zhao, S.T. Ho, et al. Physical Review Letters, 82 (11), pages 2278-2281 (March 15, 1999).