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CENTER FOR EXCITONICS SEMINAR SERIES
Directing Self-Assembly of Heterogeneous NanoSystems
Alfredo Alexander-Katz, Department of Material Science and Engineering, MIT
Thursday, Dec 5, 2013, 3PM
RLE Haus Conference Room: 36-428
Abstract
Directed self-assembly of block copolymers is a route to obtain tailored 2D patterns on
the 10nm scale that have a high degree of order. These patterns are promising for
applications in multiple areas, including sub 10nm lithography, light harvesting, and
organic electronics. In this talk I will present our work on directed self-assembly of
diblock copolymers templated by graphoepitaxial methods. In particular, I will show a new
technique that we have pioneered for performing inverse self-assembly in which the input
is a given target pattern and the algorithm provides an optimal template solutions for
such pattern. Experimental results confirming the predictions will be also presented.
Afterwards, I will also discuss about how one can then "dope" the system with
other materials as could be nanoparticles and organic components and realize well-ordered
functional heterogeneous systems. At the end I will present some future challenges and
perspectives in this area.
Bio
Alfredo Alexander-Katz is the Walter Henry Gale Associate Professor of Materials Science
and Engineering at MIT. He received his B.S. in Physics from the National Autonomous
University of Mexico (UNAM) in 1998 and his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of
California at Santa Barbara in 2004. His thesis focused on understanding the self-assembly
of copolymers using novel field-theoretical methods. As an NSF International Postdoctoral
Fellow, he studied the dynamics of driven polymers that led to an important discovery
unraveling the mystery behind the process of blood clotting at high shear rates. This
opened new routes for the development of novel shear responsive materials. As a CNRS
postdoctoral researcher at Ecole Superieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielle (Paris,
France), he studied charged polymer solutions and their self-assembly with direct
applications to fuel cells. His current interests lie in the realm of self-assembly and
dynamics of biological soft-materials using a combination of analytical theory and
simulations. His group is particularly focused in designing novel polymer-like drug
delivery carriers and understanding their response to chemical and physical stimuli. They
are also working on understanding the supramolecular self-assembly of chlorophyls in the
antennas of Photosynthetic Bacteria which are the most efficient light harvesting
organisms on Earth, as well as studying the dynamics of driven soft systems in general.
This research is highly interdisciplinary, and lies at the interface of materials,
biology, physics, chemistry and medicine.
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Light refreshments will be served.
The Center for Excitonics is an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S.
Department of Energy, Office of Science and Office of Basic Energy Sciences.
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