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Lately more aperiodic than usual, if that's possible
News
The MRS is holding its annual election of MRS Board Members. I (Terry M. Tritt ) have been nominated by the internal nominating committee. If you are a MRS member you will receive instructions on voting for the Board members. Only MRS Members can vote. I would appreciate your vote. As many of you know I have worked hard at the inclusion of thermoelectrics within the MRS community and hope to see that expanded even more so.
Thank you
New & Updated Conferences
Journal of Materials Research (JMR)
CALL FOR PAPERS —JMR Focus Issue
Advances in Thermoelectric Materials
Journal of Materials Research announces a special focus issue on thermoelectric materials for August 2011, featuring advances in fundamental materials design and resulting thermoelectric properties. This focus issue will include several invited overview papers, invited feature papers, and original contributions. Papers are solicited in various relevant areas.
Submission Deadline—December 15, 2010
Focus Issue Guest Editors:
Terry M. Tritt, Clemson University
Harald Böttner, Fraunhofer Institut für Physikalische Messtechnik IPM
MRS Symposium I: Nanoscale Heat Transfer―Thermoelectrics, Thermophotovoltaics, and Emerging Thermal Devices
Novel materials and nanostructures such as multilayered systems, nanowires, and nanoparticles are of great interest for applications in thermoelectrics, magneto-electronics, and in the emerging research field of spin-caloritronics. Their fascinating properties are strongly influenced by nanoscale confinement, such as the reduction of heat conductivity and energy filtering of charge carriers. This symposium will focus on hybrid materials and nanostructures for applications of thermal-gradient-based transport, e.g., thermoelectric generators and coolers, and integrated nanoelectronic and nanosensor devices. Currently, nanopatterning is considered to be a promising strategy in the development of thermoelectric materials with high efficiency (ZT). A large variety of thermoelectric materials have been developed in the last five years with a focus on high-temperature applications and high efficiency.
Furthermore, heat management and detection on a submicrometer scale is an important subject for future nano/microelectronic circuits. For example, in magneto-electronic devices, the local heat evolution during current-induced domain wall motion is a limiting factor for the development of race-track memories. This symposium will highlight the latest developments on magneto-thermoelectric transport phenomena and thermophotovoltaic devices. As thermoelectricity is a multidisciplinary field of research, the symposium will ensure that all of the key areas, namely physics, chemistry and engineering, are well represented.
Session topics will include (but will not be limited to):
- Nanostructured materials with thermoelectric, spin-caloritronic, and thermophotovoltaic properties
- High-temperature thermoelectric nanomaterials
- Integrated nanowires or nanopatterned thin-film sensors under thermal gradients
- Autonomous nano- and microsensors
- Thermoelectric, magneto-thermoelectric and thermophotovoltaic nano- or microdevices
- High-density and local-cooling microdevices
- Heat evolution, transfer, and management in nanoelectronics
- Heat formation and material reliability in nanoscale electronic devices
- Novel characterization techniques of thermal-gradient-related properties in nanostructures
- Theory and simulation of thermal-gradient-based transport in nano- and microstructures
Invited speakers include:
Jean-Philippe Ansermet (EPFL, Switzerland), Gerrit Bauer (Technische Univ. Delft, Netherlands), Harald Böttner (Fraunhofer Inst. of Physical Measurement Techniques, Freiburg, Germany), Hartmut Buhmann (Univ. Würzburg, Germany), Claudia Felser (Univ. of Mainz, Germany), Tero T. Heikkilä (Helsinki Univ. of Technolgy, Finland), Joseph P. Heremans (Ohio State Univ.), David C. Johnson (Oregon State Univ.), Mercouri G. Kanatzidis (Northwestern Univ.), Heiner Linke (Univ. of Lund, Sweden), Ingmar Meijer (IBM Reserach - Zurich, Switzerland), Yung Woo Park (Seoul National Univ., Korea), Eiji Saitoh (Tohoku Univ., Japan), Ali Shakouri (Univ. of Californa, Santa Cruz), Jairo Sinova (Texas A&M Univ.), Jeff Snyder (California Inst. of Technology), and Yaroslav Tserkovnyak (Univ. of California, Los Angeles).
Symposium Organizers
Kornelius Nielsch
University of Hamburg, Institute of Applied Physics,
Jungiusstr. 11, 20355 Hamburg, Germany
Tel 49-40-42838-6521, Fax 49-40-42383-3589
nielsch@physik.uni-hamburg.de
Saskia F. Fischer
Ruhr-Univ. of Bochum, Nanoelectronic and Electronic Materials,
Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, IC2/33,
D-44789 Bochum, Germany
Tel 49-234-32-25760, Fax 49-234-32-14166
saskia.fischer@rub.de
Bethanie J. H. Stadler
University of Minnesota, Dept. of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, 200 Union St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455
Tel 612-626-1628, Fax 612-625-4583, stadler@ece.umn.edu
Ted Kamins
Stanford University, Dept. of Electrical Engineering,
Stanford, CA 94305
Tel 650-723-7537, Fax 650-723-4659, ted_kamins@ieee.org
MRS Symposium E: Energy Harvesting─From Fundamentals to Devices
Energy harvesting refers to the set of processes by which useful energy is captured from waste, environmental, or mechanical sources and is converted to a usable form and stored. Energy harvesting is a broad topic that includes established methods and materials such as thermoelectrics, as well as more recent energy-harvesting technologies that convert mechanical energy, magnetic energy, and waste heat to electricity. This symposium will explore various state-of-the-art materials and devices for direct energy conversion, from thermal-to-electric to multistep energy-conversion technologies, including thermionics, thermoacoustics, and compound thermoelectrics. The symposium will highlight both the fundamental materials science underlying energy-harvesting principles and devices, as well as emphasize device-design innovations that lead to higher efficiency energy harvesting or conversion technologies. In addition, potential applications for these technologies will be discussed with the intention on linking specific material properties, issues, and needs to desired applications ranging from the cm/mm scale-down to MEMS/NEMS (micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems) devices.
The symposium will also highlight the multidisciplinary nature of the research (materials science, physics, chemistry, and applied engineering) necessary to advance the field. Theoretical studies will be presented to address transport properties, crystal chemistry, thermodynamic analysis, energy transfer, system efficiency, and device operation. New developments in experimental methods, device design and fabrication, nanostructured materials fabrication, materials properties, and device-performance measurement techniques will be emphasized.
Session topics will include:
- Modeling the efficiency of energy-harvesting devices
- Energy harvesting for wireless sensors
- Innovative devices for harvesting mechanical, magnetic, and low-quality waste heat
- Computational design of new materials for thermoelectric and mechanical/magnetic devices
- Application of multiferroic materials to energy harvesting
- Compound thermoelectric, thermionic, and thermoacoustic materials
- Nanostructured materials for energy-harvesting applications
- Advanced concepts in thermoelectric materials
Invited speakers include:
David Andrews (Univ. of East Anglia, United Kingdom), Lon Bell (BSST), Greg Carman (Univ. of California, Los Angeles), Gang Chen (Massachusetts Inst. of Technology), Ryoji Funahashi (AIST: National Inst. of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan), Viktoria Greanya (DARPA), Mercouri Kanatzidis (Northwestern Univ.), Carl Koch (North Carolina State Univ.), Laura H. Lewis (Northeastern Univ.), Joe Poon (Univ. of Virginia), Ramesh Ramamoorthy (Univ. of California, Berkeley, LBNL), and Eric Yeatman (Imperial College London, United Kingdom). Additional invited speakers will be selected from the contributed abstracts.
Symposium Organizers
Harry Radousky
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory/Univ. of California-Davis,
Dept. of Physics, Livermore, CA 94551
Tel 925-422-4478, radousky1@llnl.gov
Rama Venkatasubramanian
RTI International, Center for Solid State Energetics,
3040 Cornwallis Rd., Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
Tel 919-541-6889, Fax 919-541-6515, rama@rti.org
Hong Liang
Texas A&M University, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering,
College Station, TX 77843-3123
Tel 979-862-2623, Fax 979-845-3081, hliang@tamu.edu
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Spring 11 ZZ: Advances in thermoelectric materials & devices for energy applications
Scope: Recently, there have been significant advances in direct thermal-to-electrical energy conversion materials and this has generated increased interest in the field. This symposium will highlight a combination of new theoretical ideas, new materials and new device concepts in Europe, the US, and Asia. A spectrum of plenary, invited and contributed presentations will provide an overview of the status of research and development in thermoelectric materials, devices and applications. This symposium will focus on novel materials, various methods of materials processing and synthesis along with technologies and applications related to direct thermal-to-electric energy conversion, specifically: thermoelectrics (TE), thermionics and thermophotovoltaics. Processing plays a central role in the performance of many materials. The role of ball millling powder fabrication and/or rapid solidification such as melt spinning precursor materials followed by short term (i.e. spark plasma sintering (SPS)) processing has had an ever-increasing role in the development of thermoelectric materials processing methods. Other novel processing techniques will also be highlighted including the growth of TE nanomaterials and in-situ formation of novel microstructures. Thermal, electrical and mechanical properties of new materials and the processing of those materials into device structures will be emphasized. The symposium also intends to feature material & device-design innovations that can lead to higher efficiency thermal-to-electric energy conversion technologies. The development of high performance TE materials requires a multi-disciplinary approach (materials science, physics, chemistry and engineering) of the research needed to advance the state of the art technology. Theoretical studies of transport properties, band structure and crystal chemistry of materials, thermodynamic analysis and energy transfer in ballistic processes will also be included. Experimental efforts will include new capabilities in solid-state synthesis, new bulk materials, thin films, superlattices and nanostructured materials. New developments in material property measurements and device performance and characterization techniques will also be highlighted in this symposium. Hot topics to be covered by the symposium:
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Upcoming Conferences
That's all for today. Let me know if I forgot anything!
