Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Education:
Ph.D., Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1997
M.S., Materials Science and Engineering, University of Cincinnati, 1993
B. Tech., Metallurgical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, India, 1990

Career Highlights:
Professor Ramanath’s doctoral work won him a Materials Research Society Graduate Student Award. Prior to joining Rensselaer as an Assistant Professor in 1998, he was a staff member at Novellus Systems, CA, and a Visiting Scientist at the Physics Department of Linköping University, Sweden. He became a tenured Associate Professor in 2003, and was promoted to Full Professor in 2006.

Ramanath is a recipient of a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (2000), Prof. Bergmann Memorial Young Scientist Award from the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (2003), and a co-recipient of IBM Research Partnership Award (1999-2006). He has held Visiting Professorships at the International Center for Young Scientists, Tsukuba, Japan (summer 2004), the Nanoscale Science Department at the Max Planck Institute für Festkörperforschung, Stuttgart, Germany as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow (2004-05), and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India (summer 2006). He is an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology since October 2003, and serves on the editorial advisory board of the Journal of Experimental Nanoscience.

Research Areas:

Ramanath’s current research interests are in the areas of synthesis, assembly, and characterization of nanostructures and thin films, with emphasis on exploring new materials and architectures for fabricating future nanodevices for computing, energy generation, and understanding the relationships between atomic-level structure and chemistry, and properties. His group synergistically combines multiple processing approaches (e.g., CVD, PVD, self-assembly, ion bombardment) for thin film/nanostructure synthesis , and exploits multiple microanalysis techniques (electron microscopy, diffraction, electron, light and ion beam spectroscopies), electrical (I-V, C-V, TVS, etc.) and mechanical testing (4-point bending, nanoindentation). to capture key features of atomistic/molecular-level phenomena.

Current topics being pursued in his group:

Synthesis and assembly of nanoscopic heterostructures and thin films
The focus here is on devising strategies to synthesize nanostructures of desired dimensionalities by scalable methods, and construct larger scale architectures in a controllable fashion by combining chemical and/or physical guidance with self-assembly. Examples of structures being investigated include oriented nanotube architectures, branched nanowires, nanorods, and porous networks, one- and two-dimensional assemblies of high-coercivity nanomagnets, core-shell and branched structures of high-figure of merit thermoelectrics, interpenetrating proximal nanowire networks of high- and low-bandgap seminconductors for solar cell applications.

Thin film science and molecularly tailored inorganic materials & interfaces
The present studies are centered around the use of self- molecular nanolayers (MNLs) at the interfaces of thin films and nanostructure assemblies as chemical isolators, physical spacers, and tougheners. Our studies include quantitative measurements of diffusion barrier properties, mechanical toughness, coverage, electrical characteristics, reliability, and thermal stability of ~1-5 nm-thick MNLs with different molecular termini and lengths at metal-dielectric interfaces. The MNLs are being integrated with porous materials to create high interface integrity multifunctional materials, e.g., for use as low-k dielectrics in devices, catalysis, and energy harvesting.

Selected Publications:

Annealing-induced interfacial toughening using a molecular nanolayer, D. D. Gandhi, M. Lane, Y. Zhou, A.P. Singh, S. Nayak, U. Tisch, M. Eizenberg, G. Ramanath, Nature (2007) Accepted.

Directed synthesis of molecularly braided magnetic nanoparticle chains using polyelectrolyte and difunctional couplers, Q. Yan, H. Li, D. Gandhi, A. Purkayastha, G. Ramanath Adv. Mater. (2007). In press.

Molecular-nanolayer-induced suppression of in-plane Cu transport at Cu-silica interfaces, D. D. Gandhi, P.G. Ganesan, V. Chandrasekhar, Z. Gan, S. G. Mhaisalkar, H. Li, G. Ramanath Appl. Phys. Lett. (2007) In press.

Cu diffusion and mechanical toughness at Cu-silica interfaces glued with polyelectrolyte nanolayers, D. D. Gandhi and A.P. Singh, M. Lane, M. Eizenberg, G. Ramanath, J. Appl. Phys. (2007) In press.

Defect-induced electrical conductivity increase in individual multiwalled carbon nanotubes, S. Agrawal, M. S. Raghuveer, H. Li, G. Ramanath, Appl. Phys. Lett. (2007). In press.

Low-temperature templateless synthesis of single-crystal bismuth telluride nanorods, A. Purkayastha, F. Lupo, S. Kim, T. Borca-Tasciuc, G. Ramanath, Adv. Mater. 18, 496-500 (2006).

Suppression of chemical and electrical instabilities in mesoporous silica films by molecular capping, A.P. Singh, D. Gandhi, E. Lipp, M. Eizenberg, G. Ramanath, J. Appl. Phys. 100, 114504 (2006).

Molecularly-protected bismuth telluride nanoparticles: microemulsion synthesis, and thermoelectric transport properties, A. Purkayastha, P.G. Ganesan, A. Kumar, S.-Y. Kim, T. Borca-Tasciuc, G. Ramanath, Adv. Mater. 18, 2958-2963 (2006).

Monodisperse high magnetic coercivity silica-capped FePt nanoparticles of tunable size, composition and thermal stability from microemulsions, Q. Yan, A. Purkayastha, T. Kim, R. Kröger, A. Bose, G. Ramanath, Adv. Mater. 18, 2569–2573 (2006).

Electrical current-induced structural changes and chemical functionalization of carbon nanotubes, S. Agrawal, M. S. Raghuveer, R. Kröger, G. Ramanath, J. Appl. Phys. 100, 094314 (2006).

Microwave-assisted single-step functionalization and in-situ derivatization of carbon nanotubes with gold nanoparticles, M. S. Raghuveer, S. Agrawal, N. Bishop (undergrad), G. Ramanath, Chem. Mater. 18, 1390-1393 (2006).

Site-selective functionalization of carbon nanotubes, M.S. Raghuveer, A. Kumar, M.J. Frederick, G.P. Louie (high school teacher), P.G. Ganesan, G. Ramanath, Adv. Mater. 18, 547-552 (2006).

Wet-chemical templateless assembly of metal nanowires from nanoparticles, T. Maddanimath, A. Kumar, J. D’Arcy-Gall, P.G. Ganesan, K. Vijayamohanan, G. Ramanath, Chem. Comm. 11, 1435-37 (2005).

Hybrid microstructures from aligned carbon nanotubes and silica particles, S. Agrawal, A. Kumar, M.J. Frederick, G. Ramanath, Small 1 (8-9), 823-826 (2005) Coverpage feature.

Nanotubes in a flash: ignition and reconstruction, P.M. Ajayan, M. Terrones, A. de la Guardia, V. Huc, N. Grobert, B.Q. Wei, H. Lezec, G. Ramanath, and T. Ebbesen, Science 296, 705 (2002).

Organized assemblies of carbon nanotubes, B.Q. Wei, R. Vajtai, Y. Jung, J. Ward, Y. Zhang, G. Ramanath, P. Ajayan, Nature 416, 495 (2002)

Contact Information:
Ganapathiraman Ramanath
(518) 276-6844
ramanath@rpi.edu
http://www.rpi.edu/dept/materials/GR