Prof. George G. Malliaras, materials science and engineering, received a grant for $450,000 over five years, which will allow him to continue his research into the fundamental properties of organic semiconductors.
The Faculty Early Career and Development Program for Research is a gift from the National Science Foundation. Malliaras will also be working with both the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif., and the Xerox Webster Center.
Malliaras explained the research seeks to “develop better semiconductors for use in electronics,” and he will release his findings to the scientific community, as well as the two corporations.
Conducted primarily on the Cornell campus, the research will involve both undergraduate and graduate students, with some traveling to San Jose to perform experiments at IBM Almaden.
With these research findings, Malliaras declared that, “we could construct T.V. screens that encompass entire walls and equip supermarket items with electronic tags, eliminating check out lines.” To this end, researchers must work on finding more flexible organic semiconductor interfaces.
Progress in the field of optoelectronics in recent years produced light emitting diodes, thin film transistors, photodiodes and photorefractives. These devices, in addition to Malliaras’ findings should change the storage, processing and display of information.
According to Malliaras’ project summary, the combination of students and faculty on the research team should “create a center of excellence in research and education at Cornell that will benefit not only the field or organic optoelectronics but society at large.”
Students are looking forward to participating in the research.
“Prof. Malliaras is easy-going, energetic and dynamic. He has lots of new ideas and provides hands-on instruction,” said Yulong Shen grad.
Archived article by Ruthie Wahl