Date: Thursday, April 4, 2024

Time:  12:45 PM - 1:45 PM MST

Location: PAIS, Room 2540 and Zoom

Abstract：

Nanostructures based on biological organisms have received significant interest across many research disciplines. By studying bio-inspired principles, researchers have engineered nanostructures with unique physical properties that are not found in materials with macroscopic length scale. Examples include the tapered nanostructures found on the eyes of moths that can reduce reflection over broad wavelength bands, and tunable structural coloration found in chameleon. The porous and ordered architectures observed in plants has also led to nanolattice structures and materials with improved mechanical properties at low density. I will discuss our recent efforts in the fabrication and characterization such light-weight, high-stiffness nanolattice material with near-unity refractive index. The optical properties of these nanolattice materials can be precisely controlled by using 3D nanolithography techniques and can find applications in integrated photonics. Lastly, I will discuss the scale-up challenges in the fabrication of such multifunctional 3D nanolattice materials.

Biography：

Chih-Hao Chang’s research focuses on developing 2D/3D multifunctional nanostructures with novel physical properties and novel scalable nanomanufacturing techniques based on both “top-down” and “bottom-up” principles. Dr. Chang received his B.S. (2002) from the Georgia Institute of Technology and his M.S. (2004) and Ph.D. (2008) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), all in Mechanical Engineering. From 2011 to 2019, he was a faculty at the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at North Carolina State University (NCSU). Dr. Chang received the Early Career Faculty Award from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 2012, the Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Award from the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) in 2013, and the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2016. He also received the Outstanding Teacher Award from NCSU in 2015 and was named a University Faculty Scholar by NCSU in 2016. Dr. Chang is currently an Associate Professor in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering and holds the Temple Foundation Endowed Teaching Fellowship in Engineering #1 at the University of Texas at Austin. He is currently a Topical Editor for the journal Applied Optics.