Case Western Reserve University

R. Mohan Sankaran

Associate Professor

B.S. Chemical Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles, 1998
M.S. Applied Physics, California Institute of Technology, 2000
Ph. D. Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, 2004

email: mohan@case.edu
office: A. W. Smith 111B
telephone: (216)368-4589

Research group website

Research

Conventional glow discharges used in electronics materials processing are formed at low pressures and large scales that entail high maintenance and operating costs. Shifting the plasma parameter space to high pressures and small scales allows new applications in materials synthesis and processing. Microplasmas are miniaturized dc glow discharges with dimensions on the order of 100 μm. These non-equilibrium discharges are characterized by intense ionization and stable operation at or higher than atmospheric pressure. Our research focuses on the integration of microplasmas in several new technological areas: (1) Nonlithographic fabrication of microfluidic devices; (2) Vapor-phase synthesis of inorganic nanoparticles; (3) Design and fabrication of metal catalysts for 1D nanomaterial growth

Selected Publications

W-H. Chiang and R. M. Sankaran, “Microplasma synthesis of metal nanoparticles for gas-phase studies of catalyzed carbon nanotube growth,” Appl. Phys. Lett. Vol. 91, 121503 (2007).

W-H. Chiang, M. Cochey, C. Virnelson, R. M. Sankaran, “Nonlithographic fabrication of surface-enhanced Raman substrates (SERS) using a rastered atmospheric-pressure microplasma source,” Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 91, 021501 (2007).

R. M. Sankaran, D. Holunga, R. C. Flagan, and K. P. Giapis, “Synthesis of blue luminescent Si nanoparticles using atmospheric-pressure microdischarges”, Nano Lett., Vol. 5, 537 (2005).

R. M. Sankaran, K. P. Giapis, M. Moselhy, and K. H. Schoenbach, “Argon excimer emission from high-pressure microdischarges in metal capillaries”, Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 83, 4728 (2003).

R. M. Sankaran and K. P. Giapis, “High-pressure microdischarges in etching and deposition applications”, J. Phys. D, Vol. 36, 2914 (2003).

R. M. Sankaran and K. P. Giapis, “Hollow cathode sustained plasma microjets: Characterization and application to diamond deposition”, J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 92, 2406 (2002).

R. M. Sankaran and K. P. Giapis, “Maskless etching of silicon using patterned microdischarges”, Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 79, 593 (2001).