Researchers from the School of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences (SCMNS) at Morgan State University (Baltimore, MD) were awarded a five-year, $7.5-million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD; Arlington, VA) to found the Center for Advanced Electro-Photonics with 2D Materials. Designed to explore the technological efficacy and use of emergent 2D materials, the new Center will be run jointly by Morgan and Johns Hopkins University (JHU; also in Baltimore) in partnership with the JHU Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), with additional contributions from scientists at the Adelphi Laboratory Center (ALC) and Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) research centers of the U.S. Army.
The advanced research center, focused exclusively on electro-photonics, is believed to be the first of its kind at any Historically Black College or University (HBCU). Fundamental to the Center’s research operations will be its mission to train underrepresented diverse students by expanding talent pipelines within the technology workforce and defense sector. Ramesh C. Budhani, Ph.D., professor of Physics at Morgan, will serve as the principal investigator and director of the Center for Advanced Electro-Photonics.
The Center and its research are expected to have far-reaching implications that will not only impact industry, but also make significant contributions to STEM education and participation of underrepresented minority students in advanced scientific research. The exposure of students to specific technologies, and their accumulated experience attained at the newly created center, will increase proficiencies and marketability within private and public sector industries. The cornerstone of the applied experience made available through the Center’s research will be summer internships for both Morgan and JHU students, co-advising of Ph.D. dissertations, and joint annual workshops. Additional funding from the grant will underwrite internships for 10 to 15 undergraduate students and five students from area high schools and community colleges.
In recent years, materials research has entered a new paradigm of sophistication with the availability of nanofabrication tools, precision metrology, and advanced computational methods paving the way for increased higher education research and development in this arena.
The DoD funding will provide vital resources in the realm of scientific research rooted in thin films and nanostructures of refractory metal dichalcogenides and layered materials of a semiconductor and thermoelectric material called bismuth telluride, which is often used as a topological insulator. These layered materials will be synthesized at Morgan State. Subsequent highly critical stability calculations and growth kinetics modeling of the 2D materials, along with experimental device development, will be performed by JHU and APL researchers.
The joint research effort will target three specific areas of 2D material technology: wearable photovoltaics (PV) and thermally managed photosensors augmented by plasmonic nanostructures; hybrid PV—thermoelectric technologies for the use of individual warfighters; and interrogation of quantum defects with light and quantized photogalvanic effects. These three research facets will be pursued in close coordination with Army scientists at APL-ALC and APL-APG. Beyond their defense sector applications, the 2D (layered) materials have universal functionality that can be used in many products and technologies in today’s marketplace, including high-efficiency solar cells, photon sensors, detectors of other electromagnetic fields, and thermoelectric devices for waste-heat harvesting and refrigeration. In additional, the Center’s research is expected to provide clean energy solutions to protect the environment, sensors and detectors of defense forces, and other modern technologies.