PROFESSOR TO USE NEW GRANT TO STUDY NOVEL NANOSTRUCTURES

September 16, 2011 – Georgetown University Professor Sarah Stoll’s ongoing work with the synthesis and characterization of magnetic semiconductors yielded a substantial grant and a new, international collaboration. The National Science Foundation awarded the chemistry professor a three-year grant for $375,000. Her proposal, “Electron doping in magnetic semiconductors,” indicates her goal is “to synthesize and characterize nanostructured electron doped magnetic semiconductors.”

INNOVATIVE DISCOVERY

For two years, students in the Stoll laboratory have worked on nanowires, and approximately a year ago, they realized their materials were single crystals. Based on their findings, the researchers developed a new means to produce nanoparticles and nanorods of lanthanide chalcogenide semiconductors, which adapt easily for doping studies.

Stoll credits graduate students Srotoswini Kar, Will Boncher, and Kayla Lincoln with significant contributions to the project. Kar, Stoll notes, “was critical to the observation of single crystals.”

All levels of researchers – from advanced graduate students to high school students –contributed to the project’s developments and advances. Georgetown undergraduate Zach Reese (C’12), summer researcher Dan Olszewski, Fudan University student Lili Qiu, and Jee In Seo, a recent graduate of the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, were instrumental in the investigation.

INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION

To fully characterize these novel nanomaterials, Stoll coordinated a new, international collaboration with faculty at the University of Pierre and Marie Curie. Partnering with the Parisian university will allow her students to refine their research.

The partnership will benefit her research and her students’ experience. The collaboration, Stoll says, will allow her students to “work with these scientists and learn to use the amazing equipment they have there.”

IMPROVING DEVICES & PROCESSORS

The nanoparticles and nanorods produced in the Stoll laboratory may have useful applications in microelectronic devices and information processing.

“People are searching for new ways to store and retrieve data, using the combination of light, electronic, and magnetic properties,” Stoll says. “The idea is to increase storage capacity and decrease time to access and read the information.”

RELATED INFORMATION

Sarah Stoll's faculty profile

	Prof. Stoll and researchers in her lab will use a recent grant to synthesize and characterize nanostructured electron doped magnetic semiconductors