Ali Shakouri
Mary Jo and Robert L. Kirk Director of the Birck Nanotechnology Center
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Contact Information:
Phone: 765 496-6105
E-mail: shakouri@purdue.edu
Education:
Diplome d'Ingenieur, June 1990
Ecole Nationale Superiere des Telecommunications
Paris, France
Ph.D., July 1995
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA
Research Interests:
Quantum electronics, nano and microscale heat and current transport in semiconductor devices, thermoelectric/thermionic energy conversion, submicron thermal imaging, micro refrigerators on a chip and novel optoelectronic integrated circuits.
Research Impact Statement:
Our group studies the mutual interaction of heat, light, and electricity in nano and microscale materials and devices. We use this mutual interaction to improve device performance either in energy conversion or in information processing applications. For example, we have designed micro refrigerators on a chip that could be used to remove hot spots in microprocessor chips. We have also developed novel AC imaging techniques to obtain thermal maps of active devices with submicron spatial resolution and microsecond time resolution. We are applying similar techniques to improve imaging in turbid media using ultrafase lasers. In a major multi-university research initiative, we are working to achieve high efficiency and high power density direct thermal to electric energy conversion. By using embedded metallic nanoparticles and multilayers for hot electron filtering and thermal conductivity reduction, we improve the intrinsic thermoelectric properties of the material.
Research Images:
- Schematic structure of hybrid solid-state/liquid cooling device
- Thermoreflectance images of the developed solid-state microocoolers at different bias currents
Links:
Quantum Electronics Group - UCSC
Current Projects:
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Quantum Electronics Group establishes Thermal Characterization Lab at NASA Ames Research Center
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Direct Thermal to Electric Energy Conversion [DARPA Project]
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Advanced Thermoelectric Materials Based on IV-VI Superlattices
Recent publications
nanoHUB Contributions
Research Links