Department of Applied Physical Sciences (GRAD)

Students will participate in activities, group discussion, and problem-solving coaching to understand how chemistry, physics, materials science, and biology are applied to engineering. Topics are introduced through discussing relevant scientific literature, and guest lecturers and faculty discuss expertise in fields like mathematical modeling, mechanical engineering, or circuit design. Guest lecturers can provide new perspective on the problems, so students gain an interdisciplinary view of the subject.

Students will work in groups on a semester project to turn their entrepreneurial ideas into reality.

At the intersection between electrical engineering, optics, and computer science, this course explores how optoelectronic materials can be turned into optoelectronic devices to build high performance optical instruments. The course features many hands-on activities that include electronics, with the study of sensors operating under low light and high noise conditions, custom optical system design, imaging and holography systems, as well as computational imaging techniques using MATLAB (basic programming experience in any language is sufficient).

This course introduces the principles of nanophotonics - an emerging frontier at the nexus of nanotechnology and photonics that deals with light-matter interactions at the nanometer scale. The course will cover the theoretical foundations of nanoscale materials and optics, fabrication and characterization of optical nanostructures, plasmonics, nanomanipulation by optical tweezers, electrodynamic simulations, nanoscale light emitters, and applications of nanophotonics.

This course will cover both fundamental and applied aspects of modern materials science. We will discuss how to select materials based on their properties and how they can be processed into products that you encounter in everyday life. A strong focus will be on the relationship between processing, structure (development), and properties of solid materials, such as metals, ceramics, and polymers.

Developing electronic systems that can seamlessly integrate with biological systems represents a pivotal foundation for building a smart healthcare platform, advanced clinical technology, and beyond. Through multiple hands-on projects, this course will explore and discuss: 1) electronic materials, mechanisms, and designs at the biotic-abiotic interface, 2) their impacts for a wide range of applications ranging from medicine, robotics, to human augmentation, and 3) the associated ethics that aim to harmonize the development pathways.

What kind of material is Sponge Bob? What about his pet snail, Gary? We are taught that there are solids, liquids, and gases. However, some materials challenge this description, such as foams, plastics, pastes, skin, hair, and nails. These are soft materials, and they are everywhere: sunscreen, insulation, and car tires. In this course, we will learn about soft materials' properties, how they are processed in industry, and how to design novel soft materials.

The 21st century has already been marked with substantial discoveries in the interface of materials science, biology, and medicine that have a profound effect on our future. The course will focus on all classes of biological materials such as: biologically derived materials, natural and synthetic biomaterials, and bioinspired materials. In addition, the course will highlight the use of nanoscale materials and techniques to rapidly advance our understanding of human biology and the practice of medicine.

Topics vary from semester to semester.

An ideal internship provides students with practical experience in an organization outside of UNC, doing work that is relevant to their UNC education. The internship should develop and enhance the students' professional skill sets and involve experiences that allow students to have responsibility for results that are of value to the organization.

Students undertake independent research with a faculty mentor. In order to register for this class, students must submit a learning contract and research proposal for approval. At the end of the semester, students submit a final report that describes their research. Students are encouraged to present their work either internally at UNC or externally at a conference or symposium.

Permission of the director of undergraduate studies is required. Independent study under a member of the applied physical sciences faculty. Approved learning contract required.

Advanced specialty topics in applied physical sciences for undergraduates and graduates.

Advanced specialty topics in applied physical sciences for undergraduate and graduates.

In this course intended for graduate student researchers, we will parallel the discovery process taught in APPL 110: human-centered design, needs identification, and the iterative design and prototyping process. You will learn technical areas common to research laboratories -hardware selection, gas and liquid management, material compatibilities, electronics and data acquisition. In addition to the BeAM makerspace focused skills development activities, students will work on a personal project related to their laboratory work or research topic.

Permission of the instructor. A laboratory course covering fabrication technologies for building materials and structures in biomedical devices, electronics, MEMS, and nanomedicine. The course includes lectures on thin film deposition, etching, and photolithography and hands-on laboratories to apply knowledge and practice skills covered in the lectures.

Students will participate in activities, group discussion, and problem-solving coaching to understand how chemistry, physics, materials science, and biology are applied to engineering. Topics are introduced through discussing relevant scientific literature, and guest lecturers and faculty discuss expertise in fields like mathematical modeling, mechanical engineering, or circuit design. Guest lecturers can provide new perspective on the problems, so students gain an interdisciplinary view of the subject.

Students will work in groups on a semester project to turn their entrepreneurial ideas into reality.

At the intersection between electrical engineering, optics, and computer science, this course explores how optoelectronic materials can be turned into optoelectronic devices to build high performance optical instruments. The course features many hands-on activities that include electronics, with the study of sensors operating under low light and high noise conditions, custom optical system design, imaging and holography systems, as well as computational imaging techniques using MATLAB (basic programming experience in any language is sufficient).

This course introduces the principles of nanophotonics - an emerging frontier at the nexus of nanotechnology and photonics that deals with light-matter interactions at the nanometer scale. The course will cover the theoretical foundations of nanoscale materials and optics, fabrication and characterization of optical nanostructures, plasmonics, nanomanipulation by optical tweezers, electrodynamic simulations, nanoscale light emitters, and applications of nanophotonics.

This course will cover both fundamental and applied aspects of modern materials science. We will discuss how to select materials based on their properties and how they can be processed into products that you encounter in everyday life. A strong focus will be on the relationship between processing, structure (development), and properties of solid materials, such as metals, ceramics, and polymers.

Developing electronic systems that can seamlessly integrate with biological systems represents a pivotal foundation for building a smart healthcare platform, advanced clinical technology, and beyond. Through multiple hands-on projects, this course will explore and discuss: 1) electronic materials, mechanisms, and designs at the biotic-abiotic interface, 2) their impacts for a wide range of applications ranging from medicine, robotics, to human augmentation, and 3) the associated ethics that aim to harmonize the development pathways.

What kind of material is Sponge Bob? What about his pet snail, Gary? We are taught that there are solids, liquids, and gases. However, some materials challenge this description, such as foams, plastics, pastes, skin, hair, and nails. These are soft materials, and they are everywhere: sunscreen, insulation, and car tires. In this course, we will learn about soft materials' properties, how they are processed in industry, and how to design novel soft materials.

The 21st century has already been marked with substantial discoveries in the interface of materials science, biology, and medicine that have a profound effect on our future. The course will focus on all classes of biological materials such as: biologically derived materials, natural and synthetic biomaterials, and bioinspired materials. In addition, the course will highlight the use of nanoscale materials and techniques to rapidly advance our understanding of human biology and the practice of medicine.

Topics vary from semester to semester.

An ideal internship provides students with practical experience in an organization outside of UNC, doing work that is relevant to their UNC education. The internship should develop and enhance the students' professional skill sets and involve experiences that allow students to have responsibility for results that are of value to the organization.

Students undertake independent research with a faculty mentor. In order to register for this class, students must submit a learning contract and research proposal for approval. At the end of the semester, students submit a final report that describes their research. Students are encouraged to present their work either internally at UNC or externally at a conference or symposium.

Permission of the director of undergraduate studies is required. Independent study under a member of the applied physical sciences faculty. Approved learning contract required.

Advanced specialty topics in applied physical sciences for undergraduates and graduates.

Advanced specialty topics in applied physical sciences for undergraduate and graduates.

Crystallography, reciprocal lattices, Bloch waves, band structure, electronic wave functions, phonons, thermal expansion. Superlattice structures, including liquid crystals. Overview of properties of ceramic, amorphous, polymeric, and composite materials.

The Materials Science graduate student seminar series is a 1-credit course required for first year MTSC students. It is designed to expose students to APS research and key resources and skills outside of course work that they will need to be successful in the PhD program and beyond. Sessions will include research talks by APS faculty, workshops by invited speakers internal and external to UNC, and presentations by second year PhD students.

Students gain knowledge and learn key skill-sets outside of their technical course work needed for success in their PhD program and beyond. MTSC 711 follows on the topics learned in MTSC 710 to broaden the professional development of materials science PhD students. Students work to develop an Individual Development Plan, to understand the variety of career paths available for PhD-holders, and to practice research presentations.

Computational visualization applied in the natural sciences. For both computer science and natural science students. Available techniques and their characteristics, based on human perception, using software visualization toolkits. Project course.

The Seminar in Materials Science and Engineering is a required 1-credit course for all Materials Science students in fall and spring semesters of years 2-5 of their doctoral program. The course tracks attendance at the required APS departmental seminars. Attending departmental seminars is an important component of training for MTSC doctoral students. Engaging in the seminars will help students gain a working knowledge of a variety of research areas important to their doctoral research.

Permission of the department. Introduction to materials fabrication and characterization techniques. Includes single crystal growth, thin film deposition, synthesis of quantum dots and nanotubes/nanowires, dielectric and electron emissive materials, nanocomposites, bioceramics, and energy storage materials.

Permission of the instructor. Theory of ensembles and interactions in statistical mechanics. Classical and quantum statistics. Applications to simple systems: ideal gas, heat capacity of solids, blackbody radiation, phase transitions.

Permission of the department. Lecture and laboratory in materials analysis techniques, including microscopy, X-ray diffraction and fluorescence, magnetic resonance, thermal analysis, XPS, channeling and RBS, mechanical properties, optical spectroscopy.

Medical or dental implants or explants are highlighted from textbooks, scientific literature, and personal accounts.

Focuses on the chemistry and chemical structure-function relationships of soft synthetic biological materials. Topics include chemistry of proteins, peptides, nucleic acids, polysaccharides and lipids, and their incorporation into biomaterials and biosensors; enzymatic reactions; chemical modification of organic and inorganic surfaces using self-assembled monolayer chemistries, bioconjugation chemistries, synthesis of nanoparticles and their application as sensors, application of biological materials for logic operations, fundamentals of supramolecular chemistry.

Reaction kinetics in bulk materials. Mass transport, microstructural transformations, and phase transitions in condensed phases. Atom diffusion in solids. Spinodal decomposition.

How does one process ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene into ultra-strong fibers or how would you design a polymer shape-memory actuator? Polymer chemistry is important but equally important is the way how polymers are processed. In this course we will discuss the relationship between polymer chemistry, processing and the final, after processing, properties. (We will discuss different processing methods that are currently in use), and which parameters play a role in controlling the final properties.

Complex fluids are materials we encounter everyday such as pastes, gels, foams, blood, and tissue, yet ones that cannot be categorized within the traditional three states of matter (solid/gas/liquid). In this course, we introduce the main physical and mathematical concepts of the continuum mechanics of complex fluids and follow with microscopic approaches. The course is designed to focus on both theory and applications with hands-on activities and examples.

The course introduces the electronic and optical processes in organic molecules and polymers that govern the behavior of practical organic optoelectronic devices. The course begins with an overview of fundamental science of electronic materials and devices. We then discuss their optoelectronic properties of organic molecules, including topics from photophysics, charge transport and injection. Emphasis will be equally placed on the use of both inorganic and organic electronic materials in organic electronic devices.

This course covers the physical fundamentals of material science with an in-depth discussion of structure formation in soft and hard materials and how structure determines material mechanical, electrical, thermal, and optical properties. Topics include amorphous and crystal structures, defects, dislocation theory, thermodynamics and phase diagrams, diffusion, interfaces and microstructures, solidification, and theory of phase transformation. Special emphasis will be on the structure-property relationships of (bio)polymers, (nano)composites, and their structure property relationships.

An introduction to scientific computing key concepts and applying these concepts to solve problems, focusing on materials science and engineering. An overview of the mathematics basis of each numerical technique is followed with computer programming during and outside of class to apply those techniques. The course will require a final project to understand application software commonly used in materials science and engineering, including molecular dynamics (MD) software and in continuum modeling software.

Survey of crystal structure, bandstructure, transport. Overview of FETs, heterostructures, light emission, dissipation, noise, integrated circuits, solar cells, and ceramics. Emphasis on physical sources of device behavior.

Reflection, waveguides, nonlinear optics, optical switching, photorefraction, optical storage. Optical coupling to electronic states, device applications, optical computing.

Interatomic potentials, range distribution, radiation damage, annealing, secondary defects, analytical techniques, silicon-based devices, implantation in compound semiconductors, and buried layer synthesis. Ion implantation in metals, ceramics, polymers, and biomaterials.

Survey of novel and emerging device technologies. Resonant tunneling transistors, HEMT, opto-electronic devices and optical communication and computation, low-temperature electronic, hybrid superconductor devices.

Topics considered include those of PHYS 573, but at a more advanced level, and in addition a detailed discussion of the interaction of waves (electromagnetic, elastic, and electron waves) with periodic structures, e.g., X-ray diffraction, phonons, band theory of metals and semiconductors.

Topics considered include quantum and thermal fluctuations, and thermodynamics of phase transitions in a broad variety of condensed matter systems, their kinetic theory and hydrodynamics, novel materials (two-dimensional electron gas, graphene, topological insulators and superconductors, Dirac/Weyl/nodal line semimetals), condensed matter applications of modern field-theoretical methods (path integral, renormalization group, holography).

Permission of the department. Current topics in materials science, including electronic and optical materials, polymers, and biomaterials.

Advanced specialty topics in material sciences for graduate students.

Advanced specialty topics in material sciences for graduate students.

Advanced specialty topics in material sciences for graduate students.

Advanced specialty topics in material sciences for graduate students.

Advanced specialty topics in material sciences for graduates.

Advanced specialty topics in material sciences for graduate students.

Advanced specialty topics in material sciences for graduate students.

Advanced specialty topics in material sciences for graduate students.

An internship can be an important component of graduate training for students earning a Materials Science doctoral degree. The purpose of the internship is to expand research training and exposure to non-academic workplace environments. The student's faculty advisor and an onsite internship mentor will supervise the internship. Students work directly with their faculty advisor and their external contacts to identify internship opportunities and complete a learning agreement for the internship experience.

Permission of the department.

Permission of the department.