The ability to fabricate complex structures with characteristic length in the submicron and nanometer range opens a pathway towards creating materials with superior mechanical properties that can be tailored to a particular application. We study the mechanical response of structured materials on various time and length scales.

The system in our lab that enables extremely high rate change of materials is called Laser Induced Particle Impact Test (LIPIT). Projectile of micrometer size is placed on to a laser absorbing polymer and gold coated glass substrate. A IR laser pulse excites micro sized particle to a speed of at most 1km/s, which is achieved through rapid expansion of gold gas. Refer to relevant papers for detail.

Relevant paperwork:

Lee, J.-H., Veysset, D., Singer, J.P., Retsch, M., Saini, G., Pezeril, T., Nelson, K.A., Thomas, E. L., “High Strain Rate Deformation of Layered Nanocomposites,” Nature Communications, 3, 1164 (2012)

Lee, J. H., Loya, P.E., Lou, J., Thomas, E.L., “Dynamic Mechanical Behavior of Multilayer Graphene via Supersonic Projectile Penetration,” Science, 346 (6213), pp 1092-1096 (2014)

Thevamaran, R., Lawal, O., Yadzi, S., Jeon, S-J., Lee, J-H., Thomas, E.L., “Dynamic Creation and Evolution of Gradient Nanostructures in Single-crystal Metallic Microcubes,” Science 354, 312-316 (2016)

Hyon, J., Lawal, O., Fried, O., Thevamaran, R., Yazdi, S., Zhou, M., Veyssset, D, Kooi, S., Jian, Y., Hsiao, M-S., Streit, J., Vaia, R., Thomas, E.L., “Extreme Energy Absorption in Glassy Polymer Thin Films by Supersonic Micro-projectile Impact,” Materials Today, (2018)