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Research Interests: Professor Poon´s research group is highly interdisciplinary and his research focuses on using basic materials physics principles to design, synthesize, and investigate amorphous metals, nanostructured materials, and intermetallic compounds. The research topics undertaken are both basic and applied. Professor Poon’s interdisciplinary research is carried out jointly with Materials Science and many groups nationwide and worldwide. The overall goals of the research are: (1) To discover new materials that exhibit novel atomistic structures that can result in superior micromechanical and thermoelectronic properties; (2) To advance the fundamental knowledge on how and why the various condensed structural matters are formed; (3) To understand structural and electronic effects on the properties measured. Measurements of structural, thermoelectronic, magnetic, mechanical, and thermodynamical properties are performed using x-ray diffraction, scanning probe microscopy, electron diffraction, calorimetry, ultrasound spectroscopy, thermoelectronic transport, magnetometry, and mechanical testings. In recent years, Professor Poon´s interdisciplinary work has led to the discovery of new types of structural amorphous metals with large strength to density ratios. Among these materials, amorphous steels and strong amorphous light metals that exhibit strengths three times of conventional metals are the most notable. Meanwhile, his group has observed unusual electronic properties in the metal-based compounds studied: some quasicrystals are found to manifest metal-to-insulator transition, some intermetallic compounds based entirely on metals are seen to possess wide bandgaps, while others are found to exhibit promising thermoelectric properties that may be exploited for efficient power generation. The technological aspects of the new materials are also being pursued. Research Group(s): Selected Publications: “Effect of substitutions on the thermoelectric figure of merit of half-Heusler phases at 800 °C”, Slade R. Culp, S. Joseph Poon, Nicoleta Hickman, Terry M. Tritt, and J. Blumm, Applied Physics Letters 88, 042106 (2006). “Critical Poisson’s ratio for plasticity-to-brittleness transition in Fe-Mo-C-B-Ln bulk amorphous steel”, X.J. Gu, A. G. McDermott, S. J. Poon, and G. J. Shiflet, Applied Physics Letters 88, 211905 (2006) “Studies of icosahedral AlPdRe quasicrystals across the metal-insulator transition”, O. Rapp, V. Srinivas, P. Nordblad, and S.J. Poon, Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 334-335, 356 (2004). Current and Recent Courses: PHYS 2320: Classical and Modern Physics II (Lecturer) Spring PHYS 3210: Classical Mechanics (Lecturer) Fall |
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![[Photo of Joseph Poon]](/People/Pictures/sjp9x.jpg)