Robert P.H. Chang, Professor
Department of Materials Science & Engineering
Northwestern University

E-mail: r-chang@northwestern.edu
Phone: 847-491-3598

BS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1965)
PhD, Princeton University (1970)

Councillor of the Materials Research Society (MRS)
Principal editor, Journal of Materials Research
Honorary member of the materials research societies of India, Japan, and Korea
General Secretary, International Union of Materials Research Societies (1994- ) Subcommittee member, division of materials research, advisory board committee, mathematics and physics science directorate, National Science Foundation (NSF) (1994, 1995)
Fellow, AVS (1994)
Founding President, Board of Advisers, International Union of Materials Research Societies; Chair (1993-94)
MRS Woody Award for outstanding service to the society (1988)
MRS President (1989)

Research Areas
The Chang group focuses their research on epitaxially grown superconducting oxide thin films, carbon nanotubes and nanowires, and pulsed laser deposition of various thin-film materials. The aim is to investigate the basic science as well as to begin to develop devices for optical or electronic uses. In superconducting oxide thin films, they are using pulsed plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition with organometallic compounds to develop smooth films of uniform consistency and characteristics for use in electronic devices. Their objectives are to control depositional conditions, in situ characterization, and stoichiometric investigations using IPC. They use a variety of oriented substrate materials to control the orientation of the films.

They are also developing models to explain various phenomena of carbon nanotubes, buckyballs, and buckybundles, which have been synthesized in hydrogen dc arcs. They are using polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to investigate nanotube formation. Having had success in encapsulating various materials in the nanotubes, they are working to develop and understand nanowire formation processes as well as field emission characteristics of nanotubes. In this research they have used laser ablation interactively with both superconducting oxides and carbon nanotubes and are continuing to have success with ablation of nonlinear optical materials and hard coating materials.

Related Publications
"The effect of laser intensity on the properties of carbon plasmas and deposited films" [with H. C. Ong]. Phys. Rev. B 55: 13213 (1997).

"Field emission from nanotube bundle emitters at low fields" [with Q. H. Wang, T. D. Corrigan, J.Y. Dai, and A. R. Krauss. Appl. Phys. Lett. 70: 3308 (1997).