ABOUT
Dr. Bassiri-Gharb began at Georgia Tech in Summer 2007 as an Assistant Professor. Prior, she was a Senior Engineer in the Materials and Device R&D group of MEMS Research and Innovation Center of QUALCOMM MEMS Technologies, Inc. Her work included characterization and optimization of the optical and electric response of the IMOD displays, and research on novel materials for improved processing and reliability of the IMOD.
PUBLICATIONS & PATENTS
Patents
Soft Template Manufacturing of Nanomaterials, U.S. Patent 61/420,958 with A. Bernal, 2011.
Representative Publications
Ferrielectricity in the Archetypal Antiferroelectric, PbZrO3
Yulian Yao, Aaron Naden, Mengkun Tian, Sergey Lisenkov, Zachary Beller, Amit Kumar, Josh Kacher, Inna Ponomareva, Nazanin Bassiri‐Gharb
Advanced Materials 35 (3), 2206541 (2023)
Better, faster, and less biased machine learning: Electromechanical switching in ferroelectric thin films
Lee Griffin, Iaroslav Gaponenko, Nazanin Bassiri‐Gharb
Advanced Materials 32 (38), 2002425 (2022)
A Janovec‐Kay‐Dunn‐Like Behavior at Thickness Scaling in Ultra‐Thin Antiferroelectric ZrO2 Films
Nujhat Tasneem, Yasmin Mohamed Yousry, Mengkun Tian, Milan Dopita, Sebastian E Reyes‐Lillo, Josh Kacher, Nazanin Bassiri‐Gharb, Asif Islam Khan
Advanced Electronic Materials 7 (11), 2100485 (2021)
Chemical solution growth of ferroelectric oxide thin films and nanostructures
Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb, Yaser Bastani, Ashley Bernal
Chemical Society Reviews 43 (7), 2125-2140 (2014)
Critical thickness for extrinsic contributions to the dielectric and piezoelectric response in lead zirconate titanate ultrathin films
Yaser Bastani, Thorsten Schmitz-Kempen, Andreas Roelofs, Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb
Journal of Applied Physics 109 (1) (2011)
Stop scamming PhD graduates
Kamal Asadi, Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb
Nature Materials 23 (3), 302-302 (2024)
EDUCATION & AWARDS
- Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University, 2005
- M.S. (Laurea), University of Padua, Italy, 2001
Laurea summa cum laude, Universita’ degli Studi di Padova, 2001
IEEE UFFC (Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control) Joint 50th Anniversary Conference Best Student Paper in Ferroelectrics, 2004
Society of Women Engineers, General Motors Corporation Award, 2005
“Thank a Teacher” Award, Georgia Tech, 2008 (x1), 2011 (x3), 2014 (x1), 2017 (x2), 2018 (x1)
Senior Member IEEE, 2011
Bennett Aerospace, Researcher of the Year, 2011
Class of 1969 Teaching Fellow, Georgia Tech, 2012
NSF CAREER award, 2013
IEEE UFFC Ferroelectrics Young Investigator Award, 2013
Leading Edge Fellow, Georgia Tech, 2015
Woodruff Faculty Fellow, Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Tech, 2017-2019
Harris Saunders, Jr. Chair, Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Tech, 2019-present
Executive Leadership in Academic Technology, Engineering and Science (ELATES at Drexel®) Fellow, 2019-2021
AIMBE (American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering) Fellow, 2021
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Electro-chemo-mechanical functionalities
- Antiferroelectric, ferroelectric and piezoelectric materials
- Machine learning
- Piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM)
- Functional thin films and nanostructure
- Mesoscale and in-situ characterization
- Processing-structure-property relationships
- Energy Storage
Research
Electromechanically-Active Materials
We probe the fundamental science of ferroic materials, as it pertains to the mechanisms of intrinsic and extrinsic contributions to the functional response of these materials. Specifically, we probe the defect-defect interactions between domain walls, point, line and area defects.
We also explore novel mechanisms and new processing approaches for enhanced electromechanical response at the micro and nanoscale (increased or invariant response with decreasing size). Of special interest are exploration of new material composition unstable in bulk form, understanding of the mesoscale origins of the giant electromechanical response in relaxor-ferroelectric solid solutions, radiation effects on the functional response of ferroelectric materials, and design of compositions for high energy storage applications. Correlation of the micro- and macro-scopic responses are other areas of interest within this research thrust.
In-Situ and Operando Characterization at the Mesoscale
This thrust hinges on design of energy discovery platforms: appropriately created micro- and nano-structures to enable in-situ and operando characterization at multiple length scales (e.g. piezoresponse force microscopy and electron microscopy, as well as macro-scale characterization techniques), while resulting in enhanced compatibility with mathematical and finite element modeling of the same. The coupled theoretical and experimental results allow a unique vision into the electro-chemo-mechanical processes with an unprecedented resolution (from tens of nanometers to few microns) over many orders of magnitude overall length-scales (tens to hundreds of microns). Specifically, we leverage machine learning approaches to separate physical and chemical contributors and understand correlation across properties and length scales in materials.
Data Science Applications to Materials Science
One of the biggest challenges in materials science and engineering remains the long lab-to-fab timelines, which is more and more often affected by claims unsubstantiated by the needed materials characterization since its conception or “discovery” in a laboratory. We attempt to reduce the lab-to-fab timeline in different fields of materials science through data science with a multi-pronged approach. 1) We leverage high-throughout characterization methods at multiple length scales that enable us to get better insights into the properties of materials even when large number of samples are not available for creating statistical analysis; 2) We collaborate with data scientists and signal processing experts to enhance our understanding of signal development in nanoscale characterization methods, with the goal of reducing controversies in data interpretation in literature. 3) We have direct collaboration with theory and modeling colleagues to design materials with desired functionalities.
Far-from-Equilibrium Processing Approaches
We explore new processing approaches for fabrication of micro and nanoscale complex oxide materials, with special focus on enabling technologies for fabrication of micro- and nano-electromechanical systems (MEMS and NEMS), and increased compatibility with CMOS processing for full integration and final miniaturization. These processing approaches are far-from-equilibrium and therefore result not only in substantially microstructure changes but also large variations of the final functional properties of the material.
We probe the resulting properties of the materials, specifically targeting the physics of these complex oxides at the mesoscale, through integration of macro and microscopic characterization techniques. Our final goal is to create a processing design space that is uniquely correlated with the desired final functional responses.