This
project is based on the premise that comprehensive and fundamental materials
modeling validated by selected experiments can be used as an engineering
tool for the development of new materials and devices.
The
project will use the development of multifunctional miniaturized ferroelectric
devices as a test-bed for this concept.
Ferroelectric
materials can be used as sensors, actuators and also in electronics,
and thus provide a versatile base
to build multifunctional devices. The project will follow an ambitious
approach to the development of novel microactuators, and their integration
into multifunctional devices. This raises significant challenges in
design, processing, prototyping, and fabrication, and addressing them
empirically can take many years or decades.
This project
will pursue a different approach where fundamental, validated models
and computation play an essential role in each step of the development.
It aims to develop a hierarchy of integrated models of materials and
processes beginning from quantum mechanics and reaching to reactor and
device scales, and test the predictions against carefully chosen experiments.
The validated
models will then be used to guide materials development and processing,
and device design and fabrication. This approach allows one to explore
many more materials and compositions than can ever be synthesized, to
probe many different regions of process-parameter space, to use real-time
controls for complex processing steps and intelligently design and analyze
prototypes. In essence, it replaces time-consuming empirical optimization
of material, processing and design with a hybrid simulation and validation
process.
The project will also develop a collaboration with the Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory.
