Title: Thermal Science in Constrained Domains: Characterization, Probing, and Applications
Speaker: Prof. WANG Xinwei
From: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Iowa State University
Date: May. 29, 2013
Abstract:
The last decade has witnessed significant advances in miniaturization in material synthesis and manufacturing from micron to nano, even atomic scales. Great challenges have arisen in thermal science in terms of characterizing material properties and probing thermal and mechanical behavior during material synthesis/manufacturing at the micro/nano/atomic scale. This talk will focus on three areas of the experimental work carried out in the Micro/Nanoscale Thermal Science Laboratory. The first area is for advanced and novel technology development and characterization of the thermophysical properties of micro/nanoscale materials. Examples will be given on our transient electro-thermal (TET) and pulsed laser thermal relaxation (PLTR) technologies that have significantly reduced the experimental time down to seconds while feature superior measurement accuracy and signal-to-noise ratio. Materials from sub-mm down to sub-nm feature size have been studied extensively for phonon and electron transport. The second area is nano/atomic probing of optical, thermal, and mechanical fields during laser-assisted nanomanufacturing involving near-field optical focusing. Using near-field Raman spectroscopy and nano-scanning, we have achieved sub-10 nm down to sub-nm scale thermal probing. The last area is about the promising applications of micro/nanoscale thermal science in bio-medical diagnostics/imaging. Results will be presented on our preliminary study of noninvasive breast cancer diagnostics and ultra-sensitive DNA hybridization diagnostics using a new concept: dynamic thermal structure (DTS) sensing.