Laboratory of Materials Physics

Franklin & Marshall College

Green HeNe (543 nm) passes through bioactive glass sample in cryostat.

Research

Phone: +1.717.358.4618

Fax: +1.717.358.4474

E-mail: ken.krebs@fandm.edu

Our lab aims to understand the excited state behaviors of optically active impurities in various host materials. We use a sol-gel process to make metal oxide hosts. Metal oxides are of interest because they exhibit a wide variety of interesting physical behaviors, which depend on their structure and composition. The sol-gel process is a wet chemical process in which a variety of starting materials can be mixed together as liquids. After mixing, the solution undergoes a series of chemical reactions and heat treatments, causing the liquid to become a rigid solid. Due to the liquid mixing stage, many compositions can be made simply by varying the starting materials and their relative amounts. As well as flexibility in composition many sample forms can be investigated, like solid castings, thin films, coatings, or ceramics.

 

Thus far, our projects have centered on understanding various properties of four different metal oxides: alumina, yttria, silica, and lithium niobate. Each of these materials is an important sol-gel metal oxide for different reasons. Alumina is studied primarily for its catalytic surface properties, yttria for its fluorescent properties, silica for applications in telecommunications and bioactive properties, and lithium niobate for its ferroelectric properties. Although the primary points of interest for the materials are different, many exhibit multiple properties.

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