Science / Technology - Colloquium
Monday, February 27, 2006
4:00 PM-5:00 PM
Olin Hall
107
Atomic Force Microscopy provides an opportunity to map topography as well as local properties at the nanoscale. During this presentation, careful experiments of local mechanical properties will be described for two distinct systems: ceramic ferroelectric thin films, and living hamster cells. In each case, assessing the mechanical response as a function of position reveals important details about spatial variations of the sample properties. With respect to PZT ferroelectric thin films, the piezoelectric hysteresis has been found to vary in the vicinity of grain boundaries, due to built in strain resulting from the local microstructure of this anisotropic material as supported by complimentary electron beam diffraction and 2-d finite element modeling. For biological structures, the mechanics of individual cells are shown to vary depending on their health as well as exposure to quantum dots. By recording the vibration spectrum of cell membranes, sounds emanating from a cell can also be heard and will be played during the seminar.
Cost: FREE
Sponsored by: WPI Physics Department, Dr. Rafael Garcia
Suggested Audiences: College
E-mail:
garcia@wpi.edu
Phone: 508-831-5342
Last Modified: February 3, 2006 at 1:59 PM
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