CAREER: Sculptured Thin Films: Non-Linear Nanomechanics and Homogenization for a New Class of Engineered Thin Film Composites with Evolving Nanostructure

Nanomechanics is employed to characterize the nonlinear thermo-mechanical properties of sculptured thin films. Also, a homogenization theory of sculptured thin films is formulated to analytically and computationally derive the effective constitutive and evolution equations of these nano- engineered systems. Software and computer-based courseware is developed to simulate the experimental activity used in the identification of the thermo-mechanical properties of homogeneous as well as composite materials. The project contributes to the improvement of fabrication and life prediction techniques for a new class of composite thin films with promising applications on electroluminescent devices, optical sensor technology, micro-sieves for entrapment of viruses or for growth of biological tissues on surfaces of biological and on-biological origin.