Email

spanier [at] drexel.edu

Research Agenda

The Mesoscale Materials Lab explores how symmetry-breaking and structure drive the flow of energy in solids, including the interaction of light with matter.

It is well known how the properties of solids arise from their symmetry, whether this is defined within the bulk interior, or by the presence of a surface or interface. We study how symmetry-breaking at different length scales can alter the interaction(s) of electromagnetic energy with matter, challenging conventional notions about the behavior of materials and their properties.

We utilize materials design, film growth and materials and device characterization in tandem with computational modeling and simulation to control lattice and electronic degrees of freedom and structure, permitting excitation phenomena that can be used to capture, convert, carry and convey energy and information. Epitaxial complex oxide films grown in the lab offer an exciting palette for exploring emergent structure-properties relationships. Areas of application of our research include energy conversion, and information and communications technology (ICT).

Our Mission

The lab aims to provide vibrant research training experiences in a multi-disciplinary mentoring environment. Team members work collaboratively to advance understanding of how engineered defects may improve physical and functional properties of materials, particularly ferroics. We study the static and dynamic properties of ferroic domains, the bulk photovoltaic effect in ferroelectric insulators; the collective behavior of electrons in complex oxide two-dimensional electron gases; tunable dielectric response and dielectric loss in microwave devices.

Our Laboratory

Our facilities include several lab-designed/built growth chambers for pulsed laser deposition of epitaxial complex oxide films, systems for atomic layer deposition and DC and RF sputtering and post-growth processing; capabilities for variable-temperature characterization of carrier transport and impedance from DC to microwave frequencies, scanning probe microscopy, and a laser spectroscopy lab enabling high-resolution Raman scattering, photoluminescence and photocurrent spectroscopies with several magnets, and optical and magneto-optic cryostats permitting study of solids under excitation from the UV to the IR, at temperatures down to 1.5 K, magnetic fields to 7 T, and under different atmospheres.

We also utilize Drexel’s Materials Characterization Core, which includes X-ray diffractometers, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission, scanning electron and focused ion beam microscopes, and other the Quattrone Nanofabrication Laboratory within the Singh Center for Nanotechnology for device fabrication. We also use the University Research Computing Facility for some of our modeling and simulation work.