Research

The objective of our MURI is to enable the formation of defined, 3-D ceramic and polymer based composite structures from colloidal particles, sol-gel ceramic precursors, and biological molecules through self-assembly and directed deposition in order to develop the multifunctionality required for a diverse array of optical devices and sensors.

 The research effort is developing several complementary strategies in order to achieve the stated technical objective, including:

· DNA directed colloidal assembly routes for the creation of 2- and 3-dimensional ceramic photonic crystals
· Multiphoton polymerization, multibeam holography and directed deposition to create 3-dimensional ceramic nano- and mesostructures
· Engineering of multifunctional 3-dimensional ceramic composite devices through a close coupling of experiment, theory, and computation

Our MURI effort is divided into 3 major research thrusts.
1) 3-D Self-organized Multifunctional Composites:
      Colloidal self-assembly (Wiltzius, Lewis, Braun)
      DNA mediated assembly (Lu, Wiltzius, Fan)
      Multibeam holography (Wiltzius, Braun, Fan)
2) Directed Assembly of Multifunctional Composites:
      Direct-write assembly (Lewis, Lu)
      Evaporation induced assembly (Brinker)
      Multiphoton deposition (Braun, Brinker)
3) Spanning Length Scales and Systems Integration:
      Chemical and bio. sensors (entire team)
      Photonic devices (entire team)
      Thermal properties of periodic structures (Braun, Fan)