Faculty Directory
Bruce Wessels

Walter P. Murphy Professor Emeritus of Materials Science and Engineering

Contact

2220 Campus Drive
Cook Hall 2036; Office - Cook 4039
Evanston, IL 60208

Email Bruce Wessels

Departments

Materials Science and Engineering

Affiliations

PhD Program in Applied Physics


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Education

Ph.D., Materials Science, Massachussets Institute of Technology

B.S., Metallurgy and Material Science, University of Pennsylvania


Research Interests

Our laboratory develops thin films and nanostructures for electronic, magnetic, and photonic materials applications, with emphasis on semiconductor and ferroic oxide thin films. We are now developing a new class of widegap compound semiconductors including perovskites for x-ray and gamma ray detection.  Semiconductor photodetectors are fabricated and their opto-electronic properties determined. The charge transport properties are determined by photoluminescence,  and photo-induced current transient spectroscopy measurements. Gamma ray detectors are fabricated and their response to hard radiation measured.

We have synthesized epitaxial oxides by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy for applications in nanophotonics and nanomagnetics.  Emphasis is currently on the development of ferroelectric  oxide epitaxial thin films and photonic crystals. We measure their optical properties as well as their electro-optic properties. The ferroelectric domain structure is determined from electro-optical and microwave property measurements. Development of thin film photonic crystals for electro-optic modulators, and optical amplifiers for photonic integrated circuits (PICs) is under way.


Significant Recognition

  • Fellow, TMS 2016
  • Fellow, Optical Society of America, 2014
  • Fellow of the American Physical Society, 2003
  • Fellow, ASM, 1996

Significant Professional Service

  • Walter P. Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
  • Member of Northwestern-Argonne Institute of Science and Engineering
  • Editorial board, Journal of Electronic Materials, 1982–88; Associate Editor, 1997–2008
  • Chair, electronic, magnetic, and photonics division of TMS–AIME, 1993–95
  • Board of directors, TMS, 1993–98
  • President, TMS, 1996
  • President, TMS Foundation, 1997
  • Board of trustees, AIME, 1996–98

Selected Publications

“Charge Transport and Observation of Persistent Photoconductivity in Tl(6)Sel(4) Single Crystals”, Das, S., Peters, J. A., Lin, W. W., Kostina, S. S., Chen, P., Kim, J. I., Kanatzidis, M. G., Wessels, B. W., Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 8 7 1538-1544 (2017).

“Strong Electron-Phonon Coupling and Self-Trapped Excitons in the Defect Halide Perovskites A(3)M(2)I(9) (A = Cs, Rb; M = Bi, Sb)”, McCall, K. M., Stoumpos, C. C., Kostina, S. S., Kanatzidis, M. G., Wessels, B. W., Chemistry of Materials 29 9 4129-4145 (2017).

“Cascaded Spintronic Logic with Low-Dimensional Carbon”, Friedman, J. S., Girdhar, A., Gelfand, R. M., Memik, G., Mohseni, H., Taflove, A., Wessels, B. W., Leburton, J. P., Sahakian, A. V., Nature Communications 8 15635 (2017).

“Defect Antiperovskite Compounds Hg(3)Q(2)I(2) (Q = S, Se, and Te) for Room-Temperature Hard Radiation Detection”, He, Y. H., Kontsevoi, O. Y., Stoumpos, C. C., Trimarchi, G. G., Islam, S. M., Liu, Z. F., Kostina, S. S., Das, S., Kim, J. I., Lin, W. W., Wessels, B. W., Kanatzidis, M. G., Journal of the American Chemical Society 139 23 7939-7951 (2017).

“An Unusual Crystal Growth Method of the Chalcohalide Semiconductor, beta-Hg3S2Cl2: A New Candidate for Hard Radiation Detection”, Wibowo, Arief C.; Malliakas, Christos D.; Li, Hao; et al., Crystal Growth and Design. 16 2678 (2016).

“Photoluminescence fatigue and inhomogeneous line broadening in semi-insulating Tl6SeI4 single crystals” S. S. Kostina, J. A. Peters, W. Lin, P. Chen Z. Liu, P. L. Wang, M. G. Kanatzidis and B. W. Wessels, Semiconductor Science and Tech. 31 065009 (2016)

“Mercury chalcohalide semiconductor Hg3Se2Br2 for  hard radiation detection” H. Li, C. Malliakas, D. Y. Chung, B. W. Wessels and M.G. Kanatzidis, Crystal Growth  and Design 16 6446 (2016)

“Refined synthesis and crystal growth of Pb2P2Se6 hard radiation detectors,”  P. L. Wang, S. Kostina, Z. Liu, O. Kontsevoi, P. Chen, J. A. Peters, M. Hanson, Y. He, A. Freeman, B. W. Wessels and M. G. Kanazidis, Crystal Growth and Design, 16 5100 (2016).

“Charge Transport Mechanisms in Pb2P2Se6 Semiconductor”,  S. S. Kostina, M. P. Hanson, P. L. Wang, J. A. Peters, D. A. Valverde-Chávez, P. Chen, D. G. Cooke, M. G. Kanatzidis, and B. W. Wessels, ACS Photonics, (2016).

“χ(2)  Modulator with 40 GHz Modulation Utilizing BaTiO3 Photonic Crystal Waveguides” Peter Girouard, Pice Chen, Young Kyu Jeong, Zhifu Liu, Seng-Tiong Ho, and Bruce W. Wessels, J. Quantum Electronics, (2016) submitted for publication

“Enhancement of Pockels Effect in Photonic Crystal Modulators through Slow Light”, Peter Girouard, Zhifu Liu, , Pice Chen,Young Kyu Jeong,Yongming Tu,Seng-Tiong Ho,  Bruce W. Wessels, Optics Letters, (2016).

“Properties of epitaxial barium titanate thin films using a highly volatile Ba(hfa)2triglyme precursor”,  Young-kyu Jeong and B. W. Wessels, JVSTB 33 051206 (2015).

“Investigation of optical response of photonic crystal nanocavities in ferroelectric oxide thin film”, P.T. Lin, W. A. Russin, A. Joshi-Imre, L. E. Ocola and B. W. Wessels, J. of Optics 17 105402 (2015).

“Excitonic emissions and above-band gap luminescence in single-crystal perovskite semiconductors  CsPbBr3 and CsPbCl3” by Sebastion M, Peters J. A., Stoumpos C, Wessels B. W. et al Phys. Rev. B 92 235210 (2015).

“Photonic crystal waveguide electro-optic modulator with a wide bandwidth,” with J. Li, Z. Liu, Y. Tu, S.-T. Ho, I. Jung, L.E. Ocola, and B.W. Wessels, Journal of Lightwave Technology, 31, 1601 (2013).

“Dimensional reduction: a design tool for new radiation detection materials,” John Androulakis, Sebastian C. Peter, Hao Li, B.W. Wessels, et al., Advanced Materials, 23 4163 (2011).

“Hexagonal photonic crystal waveguide based on barium titanate thin films,” with Jianheng Li, Zhifu Liu, B.W. Wessels, et al., Optical Components and Materials Viii, SPIE 7934 7

“Magnetism and Mn Clustering in (In,Mn)Sb Magnetic Semiconductors”, J. Liu, M. P. Hanson, J. A. Peters and B. W. Wessels, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, (2015). 

“Mn doped InSb studied at the atomic scale by cross-sectional STM”, S. J. C. Mauger, J. Bocquel,  P.M. Koenraad,  C. Feeser,  N. Parashar and B. W. Wessels, Appl. Phys. Lett. (2015)

“Spin-dependent magnetotransport in a p-InMnSb/n-InSb magnetic semiconductor heterojunction,” with J. A. Peters, N. Rangaraju, C. Feeser and B.W. Wessels, Applied Physics Letters, 98 19 193506 (2011).

“Magnetotransport properties of InMnSb magnetic semiconductor thin films,” with J.A. Peters, N.D. Parashar, N. Rangaraju, and B.W. Wessels, Physical Review B, 82 20 205207 (2010).

“Magnetoamplification in a bipolar magnetic junction transistor,” J.A. Peters, N. Rangaraju, and B.W. Wessels, Physical Review Letters, 105 117202 (2010).