A Refresher Guide to Thin Film Technology
About this eBook
About the author
Ashok K. Batra holds a Master of Technology and Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. With more than 30 years of experience in the diverse areas of solid-state physics/materials and their applications, he is presently a Professor of Physics. His research experience and interests encompass ferroelectric, pyroelectric, and piezoelectric materials and their applications; the design, fabrication, and characterization of pyroelectric, piezoelectric, photothermal, and photovoltaic devices; nonlinear optical organic crystals; organic semiconductors; crystal growth from solution and melt; microgravity material research; nanocomposites; pyroelectric IR sensors and chemical sensors. He is currently engaged in research on developing ambient energy harvesting and storage devices, nanoparticle-based chemical sensors, biomedical sensors based on electrospun polymer membranes, organic force sensors, and organic photovoltaic solar cells. He has obtained various research grants as the principal or co-investigator from the U.S. Army/SMDC, NSF, DHS, and NASA. The NASA grant was related to the International Microgravity Laboratory-1 experiment aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. A recipient of a NASA Group Achievement award and the Alabama A&M University School of Arts and Sciences Researcher of the Year award, he has published over 200 publications, including five books, book chapters, proceedings, review articles, and NASA TMs. Professor Batra is a SPIE, MRS, AES, and AAS member.
Dr. M.D. Aggarwal is Professor in the department of Physics at Alabama A&M University and served as the chair from 2001 to 2019. He earned his Ph.D. in physics from Calcutta University in 1974 and completed his post-doctoral work at Pennsylvania State University. He was associated with Spacelab-3 in 1985 and International Microgravity Laboratory (IML-1) in 1992 projects to grow crystals in microgravity. He has extensive experience in the bulk crystal growth and characterization of a variety of nonlinear optical crystals including bismuth silicon oxide, piezoelectric materials such as PMN-PT, scintillator materials using melt growth techniques. He has authored many book chapters and published more than 260 publications in refereed journals. His latest technical interests include study, bulk crystal growth and characterization of organic and inorganic nonlinear optical materials, piezoelectric, scintillator and triboluminescent materials for practical device applications.
Prof. Dr. Ashok Vaseashta is a researcher and Executive director of research with the International Clean Water Institute in Virginia, USA. He received a Ph.D. from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA in 1990 followed by Kobe’s post-doctoral fellowship. He has served as a Professor at Virginia Tech and Marshall University and Vice-Provost for Research at the Molecular Biology and Research Center in South Carolina. His honorary appointments include being a professor at the Transylvania University of Brasov; a Professor at Riga Technical University; a Chaired Professor of Nanotechnology at the Ghitu Institute of Electrical Engineering and Nanotechnologies, an Honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova; an Academician at the Euro-Mediterranean Academy of Arts and Sciences, member of CIRET, France, and Senior Strategic Research Advisor for several organizations. Inspired by nature and guided by societal necessities, he strives for technological innovations to address the global challenges of the 21st century. His research interests span nanotechnology, environmental/ ecological science, heuristics, and critical infrastructure safety and security. He is the author/editor of 14 books and has published over 350 articles in scientific journals, book chapters, and conferences. He serves on the editorial boards of several prestigious international journals and is an active member of various professional organizations.
