| Professors Marcel Muller (left) and Ronald Indeck (right) developed a technique to identify the "electronic fingerprints" of objects that carry magnetically recorded data. Here they demonstrate readers that will possibly identify any card or check that carries magnetic information. |  |
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MagneticsThe Magnetics and Information Science Center (MISC) is an interdisciplinary experimental and theoretical research center focusing on recording physics and information science. Faculty participating in the center are magneticians Ron Indeck (center director) and Marcel Muller, information and communications theorist Joseph O'Sullivan, electronics and integrated circuits expert Robert Morley, and nanostructures researcher Jia Lu. Complementing the Center are faculty with specialties in field theory and imaging (Schotland) materials science (Kelton, Ruoff, Axelbaum), and chemistry (Buhro). The work of the center has been supported by the national Science Foundation, the National Storage Industries Consortium (NSIC), the Advanced Technology Program of the Department of Commerce (ATP), and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Collaborations providing materials, devices, and/or financial support as well as opportunities of industrial experience for students have been established with several companies and government agencies. Research at MISC comprises four principal projects: 1. Magnetic microstructure, its relation to physical microstructure, and to medium noise 2. Magnetic thin film transducers 3. Thermal and temporal effects on information storage 4. Physical realizability of magnetic information systems In practice these projects are closely interconnected. Moreover, in all of these areas experiment and observation are linked to an ambitious and innovative project to design and apply computational models of media, transducers, and the write, read, and decay processes. The interaction between VSM, spin stand, and microscopic (SEM, TEM, Lorentz, MFM) measurements and the simulations using advanced models has helped interpret the experimental results and has been fruitful in suggesting and guiding new experiments. |
| Graduate students Boonsong Satapun (front) and Richard Livingston analyzing samples on a cold-cathode field-emission scanning electron microscope. |  |
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ElectromagneticsProfessor Barry Spielman and his students are seeking to implement electromagnetic-based tools for modeling and designing critical features needed for microwave, high-density, electronics packages and for photonic components. One thrust pursues the formulation and implementation of an electromagnetic approach for synthesizing the geometry and/or material characteristics of a physical configuration needed to achieve desired electrical performance. This problem is being pursued using population-based, investigative synthesis. In this treatment, evolutionary and population-based algorithms are employed to establish a database for use in learning about the design space. In this fashion, it is intended to enhance the understanding about new classes of microwave circuit structures that do not lend themselves to traditional modeling using, for example, commensurate-length transmission lines. Method-of-moment solutions are also under investigation to identify suitable approaches to treat optical and nonlinear problems.NanoelectronicsThe Nanoelectronics Laboratory conducts research on the electronic properties and device applications of novel materials such as the carbon or boron nitride nanotubes. Recent advances in the synthesis of these nanotubes with a diameter on the nm-scale, yet hundreds of microns in length, bear high promise for the application of these materials in next-generation electronic nano-devices. The projects in this laboratory includes (1) the imaging and spectroscopy of these materials using a scanning probe microscope, (2) developing novel high density switching, logic, and memory devices, (3) developing nanotube based scanned probe techniques. Biophysics and Bioengineering Professor William Pickard is now engaged in three interdisciplinary collaborations. With Professor Robert Morley and faculty in the Physical Therapy Program, he is investigating the design of sensory aids for diabetics with peripheral neuropathy. With faculty in Radiation Oncology, he is studying the possibly biological effects of cell phone usage. With collaborators at Harvard University, he is examining the mysterious (but crucially important) process of root exudation in plants. These activities span the continuum from the design and fabrication of reliable working devices to the frontiers of biological research.
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