The Fall 2022 MatSE 590 for graduate students consists of an exciting and jam-packed schedule. MATSE 590 is a colloquium (1-3 credits) consist of a series of individual lectures by faculty, students, or outside speakers.
Graduate students will receive a weekly email with information via @psu.edu email. Graduate students are required to attend all 590 Seminars. If you have any questions, please email GradOffice@matse.psu.edu.
October 27, 2022 - "Surface composition analysis of ultra-shallow surface regions with complementary in-situ characterization under energetic particle irradiation"
Jean Paul Allain, Department Head of Nuclear Engineering, Lloyd and Dorothy Foehr Huck Chair in Plasma Medicine, Penn State
Abstract
Quantitative compositional analysis at ultra-shallow depth scales is important for the understanding and optimization of processes that involves modification of the topmost layers of surfaces to sub-surfaces using low-energy plasmas and ion beams. A thorough and precise understanding of the behavior of the surface under exposure to plasmas and ion beams is important in applications such as studying the surface chemistry evolution in nuclear fusion reactors of plasma-facing material surfaces. Moreover, such understanding is also essential in developing a predictive model for the self-organization behavior of nanoscale structures on surfaces upon low energy ion irradiation, a phenomenon that is both very intriguing from a physics point of view and promising for controllable, one-step, bottom-up fabrication of nanostructures. For low energy ions, the modification is confined within ~10 nm below the surface. Therefore, probing the plasma- and ion-induced changes requires extremely surface-sensitive characterization techniques. In this talk, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and low energy ion scattering spectroscopy (LEISS) have been utilized for the compositional analysis and depth profiling of complex multicomponent materials. The design of in-situ facilities in Allain’s group both off-line and on-line nuclear fusion reactors will be discussed and the implications of combining this analysis in unraveling dynamic plasma-material surface mechanisms discussed.
Biographical Information
Prof. Allain is Professor and Department Head of the Ken and Mary Alice Lindquist Department of Nuclear Engineering. Dr. Allain was Professor and Associate Head of Graduate Programs in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) from 2013 until 2019 and was Assistant and Associate Professor in Nuclear Engineering at Purdue University from 2007 to 2013. He received a masters and doctorate degree in Nuclear Engineering from UIUC and a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cal Poly Pomona. Prof. Allain works in areas of surface science and plasma-material interactions with applications in nuclear fusion, plasma medicine and advanced nanomaterials. Prof. Allain is recipient of numerous awards including: Argonne National Lab’s Distinguished Award 2003-2006, Best Teacher Awards in 2008 at Purdue and 2013 at Illinois, Department of Energy Early Career Award in 2010, the Research Excellence Award in 2011, the Fulbright Scholar Award in 2015, Faculty Entrepreneurial Fellow in 2016, Dean’s Excellence in Research Award in 2017, the 2018 American Nuclear Society Fusion Energy Division Technology Accomplishment Award, and Huck Chair in Plasma Medicine in 2019