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Michael Riley
Chemical Engineering
I am a chemical engineering PhD student working for Professor Joel Plawsky and Professor Toh-Ming Lu in Physics. My focus and interest centers on designing controllable nanoscopic morphologies in thin films for applications in optics, biology, and terahertz EM detection. Primarily, I will create silicon nanospirals that act as anti-reflection coatings for terahertz detectors, then cater the technology to operate with visible light for LEDs. Development of complete control of porosity and morphology in this thin film, along with an analysis of the mechanical properties, will lead to extensive versatility for adapting the technology to applications across disciplines. Verifying this will require characterization techniques such as XRD, SEM, spectroscopy, etc.
I will also explore benefits from temperature control of the sample and exploit the conductive, mechanical, and chemical properties of other materials to make nanostructures acting as biological sensors, ion storage cages, and tunable optical bandgaps. My goals will be fulfilled once I am able to communicate an understanding of the process which enables new areas of research to begin, and the technology is ready to be carried to the next step.
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