Dr. Gheorghe Stan

Research Interests

• Develop and customize instrumentation for atomic force microscopy to enable advanced and reliable nanoscale property characterization, with direct applications in nanoelectronics, micro- and nano-electromechanical systems, and biotechnology.
• Atomic force microscopy based characterization of the structure-mechanical property relationship at the nanoscale. Interrogate the size-dependence of the elastic moduli of structures of reduced dimensionality: zero-dimensional nanostructures (nanoparticles), one-dimensional nanostructures (nanowires, nanotubes, nanobelts etc.), and two-dimensional nanostructures (sheets and membranes).
  
• Develop contact resonance atomic force microscopy (CR-AFM) for nanoscale elastic modulus measurements: point-measurements and mapping. Assess the suitability of CR-AFM in performing quantitative measurements on materials with elastic moduli in the range of GPa to hundreds of GPa.

Figure 1(left): Measurements of the normal and tangential elastic moduli of nanowires; Figure 2 (center): Contact resonance atomic force microscopy mapping on granular Au films; Figure 3 (right): Probing the elastic modulus on the inner part of AlN nanotubes.

Awards and Honors

• 2009 MSEL Distinguished Associate Award
  
• American Physical Society, Materials Research Society (memberships)