Research
Overview - Thermal Energy Transport and Conversion Physics
Efficient and sustainable energy conversion and transport processes in devices and equipment continue to challenge us. These involve phenomena with various scales of time (femto, pico, and nano) and length (nano and micro) where the classical and empirical treatments are not sufficient. In small scale perspective, the four principal energy carriers, namely, phonon (p), electron (e), fluid particle (f) and photon (ph), participate in the storage, transport, and transformation of energy. Our research aims at providing better understanding and solutions to various energy transport and conversion challenges involving thermal energy, based on a fundamental examination of the roles of these four principal carriers (we call this discipline “Heat Transfer Physics”). We have studied systems involving all four carriers with multi-scale approaches (ab initio, molecular dynamics, and Boltzmann or meso) with combinations of classical, statistical and quantum mechanics. We plan to expand my research, encompassing interface and junction thermal energy transport in composites, efficiency improvement through nonequilibrium energy harvesting and atomic structure design for desirable thermal energy transport and conversion properties.
