Colloquium: Dawn Bonnell, Local Interactions and Consequent Properties of Oxide Surfaces and Interfaces: lessons learned from SPM

Trustees Chair Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of Pennsylvania

Abstract

In applications as diverse as dye sensitized solar cells, chemical catalysis, fuel cells and biomedical sensors and in processes ranging from grain growth to molecular adsorption, to electronic transport, local interactions at interfaces dictate  behavior. The ability to probe not only structure but also properties by Scanning Probe Microscopy with increasing spatial resolution is advancing understanding of fundamental interactions in these systems. This talk will present a recently developed understanding of polarization dependent molecular interactions on ferroelectric surfaces against the background of the behavior of the surfaces of transition metal oxides. Examples of interface induced properties at oxide grain boundaries and interfaces will be shown. Finally, future prospects enabled by next generation scanning probes will be summarized.

Bio

 

Dr. Dawn Bonnell is a Trustee Professor of Materials Science at the University of Pennsylvania and the Director of the Nano/Bio Interface Center.  She received her PhD from the University of Michigan and was a Fulbright scholar to the Max-Planck-Institute in Stuttgart, Germany, after which she worked at IBM Thomas Watson Research Center.  Her current research involves atomistic processes at oxide surfaces, nanometer scale electronic phenomena in materials, and assembly of complex nanostructures.  She has authored or coauthored over 180 papers, edited several books, including Scanning Probe Microscopy and Spectroscopy: theory, techniques, and applications. Her work has been recognized by the Presidential Young Investigators Award, the Ross Coffin Purdy Award, the Staudinger/Durrer Medal, and several distinguished lectureships.  Professor Bonnell serves on several editorial boards, national and international advisory committees, is a past president of AVS, served the governing board of the American Institute of Physics, and is a past vice president of the American Ceramic Society.  She is a fellow of the Am. Cer. Soc, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the AVS.