Engineering with Atomic-Scale Building Blocks 

Abstract: Scaling to the atomic dimensions unlocks new material properties and physical phenomena. On-demand engineering of these new functionalities is foundational to enable the next-generation computing, sensing and information processing technologies. This has motivated rapid development of atomic-scale materials as promising building blocks of future nanosystems. Their integration into functional devices, however, is challenged by the lack of necessary resolution and compatibility with the conventional top-down fabrication processes. We address these limits by developing new engineering frameworks leveraging bottom-up manufacturing to enable down to atomic-scale control of nanomaterials and their heterogeneous integration into functional structures. With these platforms, we engineer devices with unique designer functionalities for next-generation electronics, optoelectronics and quantum technologies. Specific examples of enhanced two-dimensional transistors and sensors through van der Waals integration, and on-chip perovskite light sources for photonic quantum technologies formed through direct write will be discussed. 

Bio: Farnaz Niroui is an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research pushes the limits of nanoscale engineering to develop new paradigms of active nanoscale devices and systems for next-generation computing and sensing applications. Prior to MIT, Farnaz was a Miller Postdoctoral Fellow at University of California Berkeley. She received her PhD in Electrical Engineering from MIT and completed her undergraduate studies in Nanotechnology Engineering at University of Waterloo. Farnaz has been the recipient of awards including the DARPA Young Faculty Award, NSF CAREER Award, DARPA Director’s Award, MIT EECS Outstanding Educator Award, Junior Bose Award for Teaching Excellence and the Miller Fellowship. 

All seminars are held on Wednesdays from 12:30 -1:30p.m. in the Bowen Hall Auditorium Room 222.   A light lunch is provided at 12:00p.m. in the Bowen Hall Atrium immediately prior to the seminar.