Thin Film Stress Propagation
Research
Over the summer after my sophomore year, I conducted research at Brown University funded by the Karen T. Romer Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA). A paper of the result from this research is planned to be written.
Overview
On an undergraduate research grant at Brown this past summer, I was asked to investigate a previously unexplained material phenomenon: tensile stress in thin films of atoms. After reviewing the existing models and proposing a new mathematical understanding, I developed a model in MATLAB with Professor Eric Chason that predicts thin film stresses. In the end, I was able to achieve the most complete explanation of thin film stress propagation yet. This research experience taught me to overcome repeated technical setbacks with confidence and to proactively fill gaps in my background knowledge. I learned that I enjoy the process of solving difficult problems by mastering the intricacies of a topic and thinking outside of the scope of what has already been attempted.
Key Outcomes
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Developed a theoretical model under the supervision of Professor Eric Chason to explain for the first time the onset of tensile stress in thin film growth, which has important applications in optics and data storage
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Coded 3 MATLAB scripts (each hundreds of lines), that imported and filtered thousands of data points from Excel, modeled the corresponding stress states, and graphically depicted the results
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Confirmed the validity of the model through least squares comparison to real-world stress measurements
A sample of the modeled results is shown below. The grey dots represent experimental data, while the solids lines show the modeled behavior.
