Research Interests:

Dr. Tsai research efforts are largely devoted to the study of defect generation in the growth of semiconductor crystals (Si, GaAs, InP, etc). The numerical model I developed to simulate dislocation multiplication in semiconductor crystals has made significant contributions for crystal growers to grow better quality crystal for manufacturing high efficiency solar cells and microelectronic devices. The numerical model has been cited by the Handbook of Crystal Growth as the first numerical model for predicting the dislocation densities generated in the growing semiconductor crystals.

Another research interest is to synthesize anti-microbial nanoparticles composed of a magnetic core and covered with photocatalytic TiO₂. The nanoparticles will have a direct application to open wounds that will have anti-microbial activity when exposed to sunlight or visible light, and can sprayed onto actual wounds and be easy to extract from wound after treatment. As reusable photocatalyst nanoparticles, the nanaparticles also can be of potential application in field water treatment and removal of inorganic pollutants, destroy bacteria and viruses. The magnetic property of the composite nanoparticles facilitates controlled movement, such as the enhanced mixing with reactants separation, recovery from the system, the transport of the photocatalyst to a desired destination for photo destruction of cancer cells. We are also interested in synthesizing nanoparticles to manufacture flexible solar cells.