Overview of NUTS Lab

Overview of NUTS Lab at CU-Boulder

Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Sanders Faculty Fellow in Engineering

University of Colorado at Boulder

Nanoengineering is a largely virgin territory, particularly for the field of mechanical engineering. As such it presents many challenges with opportunities, in both theory and experiments, for both fundamental and applied research. Sitting in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder, the newly established Nanoscale and Ultrafast Thermal Sciences and Applications Lab (NUTS) is an interdisciplinary center that merges mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, material science, and physics, to understand fundamentals of energy transport and conversion in micro/nano and ultrafast scales, and to develop novel applications of nanoscale and ultrafast thermal science to advance information, energy conversion, micro/nanofabrication, and biomedical technologies. The research and the training of students in NUTS emphasize theoretical understanding, experimental characterization and implementation, and applications.

A variety of simulation tools, from atomic simulation including molecular dynamics, Monte Carlo simulation, and first principle calculation, to deterministic solution of the Boltzmann transport equation using finite volume method and discrete ordinate method, to simplified transport theories have been developed in NUTS to study the fundamentals of micro/nanoscale and ultrafast energy transport and conversion by electrons, photons, phonons and molecules. Currently the work in NUTS emphasizes multiscale simulations of the energy transport and conversion in devices and systems containing embedded nanostructures, mutual interaction of energy and information carriers including coupled nonequilibrium electric-thermal transport and conversion, coupled heat and mass transfer in micro/nanofabrication and bio-sensing, and coupled photo-electron-thermal transport.

The theoretical study is well underpinned by experiments. A variety of electrical and optical characterization systems is being set up in NUTS to study the fundamentals of thermal transport process of electrons, phonons, photons and molecules in micro/nano and ultrafast scale. For example, sub-picoseconds pump-probe optical measurement system is built to study transport properties of energy carriers of both bulk and nanostructures. High resolution thermal imaging system is being set up to study thermal and molecular transfer in nanoscale devices and systems. Electrical and hybrid thermal property characterization systems including 3-omega and photo-thermoelectric systems are also being constructed.

The fundamental research in NUTS will impact substantially several carefully-chosen application areas currently pursuing in NUTS that will lead to the development of novel nanotechnological devices and inventions, including the thermal transport phenomena and thermal management for information technologies – nanoelectronic, photonic and data storage devices and systems, nanotechnology-enabled energy conversion, advanced and alternative micro/nanofabrication, and sensing techniques based on nanoscale thermal effects.

Research Topics at CU-Boulder

Focus: Nanoscale and Ultrafast Thermal Sciences with Applications in Energy Conversion, Thermal Management, Nanofabrication, and Bio-Medical Engineering.

Research Topics undergoing in the group:

· Micro/Nanoscale and Ultrafast Transport Phenomena

· Thermal Management of Electronic and Optoelectronic Devices

· Micro- and Nanotechnology for Energy Conversion

· Nanostructured Materials (Nanocomposites, Nanoporous Materials)

· MEMS/NEMS and Micro/Nanofabrication

· Nano-Biomedical Engineering

Ph.D Thesis at MIT:

Nanoscale Heat Conduction with Applications in Nanoelectronics and Thermoelectrics

Abstract, Table of Contents, List of Figures, Summary and Future Directions

Thesis Committee:

Gang Chen, Professor of Mechanical Engineering