Research Interests:

Our group develops new chemical, physical, engineering, and biological applications related to nanostructured materials. Our research is focused on the following four topics:

Self-Assembled Photonic Crystals and Colloidal Plasmonics: Photonic crystals and colloidal plasmonics offer unprecedented opportunities for the realization of all-optical integrated circuits and optical chips. Our group is developing colloidal self-assembly approaches to control, manipulate, and amplify light on the sub-wavelength scale. We focus on the fundamental understanding and development of the spin-coating technique to achieve functional nano-optical devices.

Electrokinetic Separation and Micro-Analysis of Bio-Macromolecules: Microfabricated devices for separating biomolecules like DNA or protein are important for future integrated bioanalysis systems. Our group is exploring a non-lithographic approach to make new nanofluidic devices with hierarchical pore systems for practical production and integration of micro total bioanalysis systems (m-TAS). We are also interested in developing a galvanic-cell-based microchip technique for the enrichment and separation of trace biomaterials such as cells.

Nanocrystalline for Ultra-High Density Magnetic and Optical Recording: Self-organizing ferromagnetic nanocrystallines are promising for ultra-high density magnetic recording materials. Our group is exploring new synthetic and assembly approaches to produce sub-10-nm ferromagnetic nanocrystals and wafer-scale thin-film nanocomposites to target terabits per square inch areal density. We are also interested in developing synthetic strategies for ternary chalcogenide optical recording materials.

Self-Healing Materials: Self-healing materials are of great technological importance in reducing material failure and maintenance cost. We are developing bio-mimetic self-healing systems associated with galvanic (bimetallic) and pitting corrosion. We utilize an in-situ, spontaneous corrosion electric field to deliver repairing agents to defect sites.