Speaker: Sriparna Bhattacharya, Clemson University

Title: Using light to open doors for next-generation thermoelectrics and chemical imaging techniques

Abstract: My talk will focus on using light to decode fundamental mechanisms in materials research. As two broad examples, I’ll discuss how Raman spectroscopy has helped identify phonons that drive anharmonicity in binary chalcogenides (e.g., SnSe and GeTe), leading to their intrinsically low lattice thermal conductivity and a high figure-of-merit for converting waste heat into electricity. Experimental evidence will be presented demonstrating that light is more effective than transport measurements in advancing phonon-engineering approaches to improve thermoelectric material performance. My other example includes the design of a new luminescence-based chemical imaging technique that shows promise for non-invasive detection of implant infection. The luminescence in our imaging technique is activated by ultrasound, enabling much-needed deep-tissue, non-invasive, early detection of implant-associated infections.

This work on binary chalcogenides was performed in collaboration with Prof. Y-Y. Chen’s group in Academia Sinica, Taiwan, Prof. A.M. Rao’s group at Clemson University, and Dr. Rahul Rao, Air Force Research Laboratory, WPAFB, Dayton, OH, 45433 USA. The new luminescence-based chemical imaging technique was jointly developed in collaboration with Profs. J. N. Anker’s and A. M. Rao’s research teams at Clemson University.

Biography: Sriparna Bhattacharya is a Research Associate Professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, the Lab Manager at the Clemson Nanomaterials Institute, and a Faculty Scholar at the School of Health Research at Clemson University. Her broad research interests include waste-heat harvesting using electron- and hole-based, as well as ion-based, thermoelectrics. Recently, she collaborated with Prof. H. J. Goldsmid, aka the ‘Father of Thermoelectrics,’ (School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia), to develop a new evaluation method for thermoelectric materials. This study was featured as the Editor’s Pick by the Editorial Board of the Journal of Applied Physics. She is also passionate about improving lives in the State of SC and beyond. She is developing chemical imaging methods for early detection of infection in biomedical applications.

Refreshments at 3:45pm in Lewis 104