Professor Jonathan Spanier (PI), with co-PIs assistant professor Steven May and assistant professor Jason Baxter (Chemical & Biological Engineering) received funding for “Laser sources for characterization of functional oxide materials” from the US Army Research Office and the Department of Defense under the DURIP program.
The new instrumentation, which includes a diode-pumped solid state and tunable Ti:S lasers with frequency doubling, is being used to investigate the optical and optoelectronic properties of oxides, including luminescence and resonant Raman scattering. In particular, it is being used to study the photovoltaic properties of new ecologically-friendly earth-abundant element oxides for high-efficiency solar energy conversion. The award received is approximately $198,000.