Events



Join us at any of our upcoming events

Find out what's happening within the department. We invite you to explore our upcoming events.

2024 Four Corners Meeting of the American Physical Society

October 11-12
Northern Arizona University

Additional information can be found at the meeting website.

APMS Colloquium

Thursday, October 10, 9:45-10:45 am

Dr. Kirstin Alberi
National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Designing Topological Semimetals for New Energy Arenas

Abstract: The growing use of computing in the age of Al is projected to place more demand on our energy infrastructure and will ultimately necessitate the use of more energy efficient microelectronics. Innovations in spintronic and neuromorphic devices will in turn require us to develop new materials that better enable the control of flow of electrons and their spin states. In this talk, I will discuss the potential of topological semimetals for microelectronics applications and the early-stage materials manipulation work that will need to be conducted in preparation for more advanced device development. We use the Dirac semimetal CdAs as a platform to study the role that typical forms of disorder, such as point defects, play in electron transport behavior. We also demonstrate paths toward device design utilizing topological semimetals and discuss what is next in this field.

Kirstin Alberi is the Director of the Materials Science Center in the Materials, Chemical and Computational Science directorate at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). She received a doctorate in materials science and engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 2008, where she studied the optical and electronic properties of highly mismatched semiconductor alloys. She came to NREL as a postdoctoral researcher in the Silicon Materials and Devices group to investigate the design and performance of thin crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells fabricated on inexpensive substrates. In 2010, Kirstin joined the Materials Physics group to conduct basic research on the optical and electronic properties of semiconductor alloys for photovoltaic, solid-state lighting and other energy-relevant technologies.

Adel Mathematics Building, Rm 147 or on Zoom (see below)

Meeting ID: 832 5521 7941
Password: 29013

Sponsored by:

• Center for Materials Interfaces in Research and Applications (¡MIRA!)
• Nanotechnology Collaborative Infrastructure Southwest (NCI-SW) and Arizona State University (ASU)

For more information please contact APMS at APMS@nau.edu