Jonathan E. Spanier, PhD - US grants

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award provides funds for the acquisition of a Zyvex S100 nanomanipulator, a palm-sized device designed to be used inside a scanning electron microscope. This equipment will be used to support research on the following technologies: 1) manipulation of individual protein structures such as those consisting of collagen with dimensions on the order of 50 nanometers in diameter and 0.1 to 100 millimeters in length, 2) positioning small-scale instruments to investigate how size affects mechanical and electrical properties in structures such as nanowires, 3) manipulation of nanotube-enhanced biological tissues, 4) microfabrication of optoelectronic devices, 5) local gating of nanowire devices, and 6) general nanofiber synthesis. The device is ideally suited for an academic environment due to its user-friendly joystick interface which will allow students to quickly appreciate and master techniques for manipulating matter at a scale smaller than is visibly resolvable.

The Zyvex S100 will enable research in the fields of nanoscale tissue engineering, computer engineering, and aerospace engineering. It will enable researchers to test hypotheses regarding the behavior of healthy, diseased, and engineered biological tissue. Specifically it will enable current and future researchers to look at how nature arrived at the current configuration of matter in living systems, guide pathologists toward solutions for correcting disease at the molecular level, and aid tissue engineers working at the scale at which living systems first evolved and self-assembled. The Zyvex S100 will facilitate the building of smaller, faster, cheaper devices, such as those constructed from metallic or polymer nanowires, which will impact fields as diverse as computing, biochemical mass sensing, and aerospace engineering where speed and precision are critical. The device will help to enable the creation of large-scale biological tissues with tailored material properties. The device will also be essential to the fabrication of devices to record disease-related elevated pressures within living systems.

NON-TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: The properties of an emerging family of inorganic, nano-laminate engineered compounds will be investigated by a focused research group (FRG) of investigators from Drexel and Rowan Universities. These materials with the general formula Mn+1AXn (where n = 1 to 3, M is an early transition metal, A is an A-group (mostly IIIA and IVA) element and X is either C and/or N) and their solid solution alloys known as the so-called MAX phases feature unique chemical, physical, electronic and mechanical properties. They possess superb machinability and extremely low friction coefficients despite being extremely stiff materials. This combination of properties bridges some of the outstanding properties of metals and ceramics within one class of material, the MAX phases. These properties make MAX phases an ideal choice in many areas, for example those requiring low-wear, high-temperature application in aerospace, electronics, tools and consumer goods. The efforts in this program encompass a broad range of experimental and theoretical simulation tools and resources for the characterization, modeling, prediction and manipulation of properties. This program represents a partnership of Drexel, a Ph.D.-granting university, with Rowan, a four-year undergraduate university with a strong tradition of undergraduate research excellence. The linking of students, faculty and resources from both institutions will bring undergraduates and graduate students together in an interdisciplinary environment to provide broader educational and research experiences, to develop important analytical skills, to reinforce their knowledge of the materials through direct interactions, and to further stimulate interest among actively participating and talented undergraduates to pursue graduate studies in a science and engineering discipline.

TECHNICAL DETAILS: The MAX phases are among the few polycrystalline solids that deform by a combination of kink and shear band formation, together with delaminations within individual grains. The unusual combination of properties is traceable to their layered structure, the metallic-covalent nature of the MX bonds that are exceptionally strong, together with M-A bonds that are relatively weak, especially in shear. While the potential of select Mn+1AXn phases for high temperature structural applications is beginning to be realized, little is understood about how their thermal, electronic and mechanical properties can be effectively tuned to produce new and unexpected combination of properties in their solid solutions. Herein we propose to explore new materials using combinatorial materials synthesis along with first-principles calculations of electronic properties and lattice dynamical calculations of MAX-phase solid solutions. With bulk and thin-film analytic experimental techniques that have proven to be successful in characterizing these phases, efficient coverage of the compositional and synthetic processing parameter space will enable rapid identification of solid solutions with attractive, and quite possibly novel, combinations of properties. Characterization will include nano-tribological measurements such as local friction and surface energy dissipation via variable temperature scanning probe microscopy; local stress-strain analysis via nanoindentation; linkage of lattice dynamics with mechanical properties via in situ Raman scattering; and probing of electronic, optical and magnetic properties in bulk and thin films.

Intellectual Merits: In this project, the collective response of a dense cloud of confined charge is used as the basis for a number of high sensitivity detection applications including optical detectors, charged particle detectors, and the detectors of electromagnetic radiation in the terahertz frequency range. Optical detectors will be fabricated which circumvent the most limiting constraint on speed of device, the transit time of the carriers, by collecting them in a reservoir of charge and detecting the subsequent charge density waves. Charged-particle detectors will be designed, fabricated and analyzed which work on the same basis of the perturbation of such a reservoir. Coupling of electromagnetic radiation in the terahertz region and such devices will be studied and is expected to lead to the development of sensitive detectors of such radiation. These effects are enhanced with increase in the degree of confinement; as a result schemes for designing one-dimensional devices for photon and charged particle detection will be pursued. Successful completion of this project will have a broad scientific impact on the study of the collective response of electrons with application areas ranging from electron microscopy to optical communications, and biomedical engineering.

Broader impacts: The broader educational impact of this work will be magnified by building on a strong Drexel tradition of involving undergraduates in research at early stages of their education, and will leverage a number of NSF-sponsored programs including two Research Experiences for Undergraduates programs, including one specifically involving sensor development, a Research Experiences for Teachers site, an Integrative Graduate Education and Research program in nanotechnology and a GK-12 graduate fellowship and educational outreach program. Both undergraduates and graduates will be involved in growth, characterization, design, fabrication, and analysis of these nanostructured materials. In addition, much of the previous research leading to the present work is based on international collaboration and will be continued as a result of NSF support.

This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) renewal award combines the resources and expertise of faculty at two major universities to train Ph.D. students to lead the way in the development, application, and responsible integration of nanotechnology. Drexel faculty members excel in nanoscale engineering research related to materials synthesis and characterization, materials for biomedical, energy and environmental applications, and sensors. University of Pennsylvania faculty members excel in nanoscale science research related to conductive polymers, structure of matter, nano-bio interfaces, electronic devices, molecular motors, and nanoscale instrumentation. This program strives to instill in its trainees the idea of nanotechnology not as an individual discipline, but more of a new approach to science and engineering, which allows us to build new materials and devices starting from molecules or nanometer-size particles. As such, nanotechnology is inherently interdisciplinary. Through collaborative research programs involving multiple faculty advisors that transcend disciplines, departments and university boundaries, IGERT trainees address the most acute problems in the fields of energy, environment and health. This program aims to enhance the diversity of graduate students in nanoscale engineering and science by partnering with the Philadelphia Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, Society of Women Engineers, and the Historically Black Colleges and Universities/Minority Institutions Project Office. The program prepares trainees to effectively teach and communicate with a broad audience while recognizing the ethical, legal, and social issues related to cutting-edge research. Trainees receive valuable mentorship experience working with K-12 students and teachers from the School District of Philadelphia and other regional districts, as well as undergraduate researchers, through Drexel's and Penn's network of science and engineering education outreach activities. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.

Technical Abstract
This multi-probe instrumentation will integrate micro-Raman scattering and other visible-wavelength spectroscopic probes with scanning secondary electron and electron backscattering, and energy-dispersive analytic mapping capabilities within a single experimental platform. Graduate and undergraduate, postdoctoral, and faculty researchers will use this capability to collect multi-channel maps of Raman scattering, cathodoluminescence, and photoluminescence spectroscopy, and electron microscopy and analysis with spatial correlation, and in high-vacuum, variable-pressure or environmental mode. Enhanced by a heating and cooling stage, the system will be used to provide spatially correlated images of local structure and phenomena, properties and fields. These include chemistry, structural phase, composition, strain, electronic carrier concentration, and carrier diffusion lengths in surface and near-surface nanostructures, thin-film and bulk materials and devices. By linking multiple quantitative mapping capabilities with multiple stimuli, the instrument will impact a diverse range of research activities, including those involving biomaterials and biosensors, nano-scale electronic, photonic and plasmonic materials and devices, materials design, and materials for applications in renewable energy technologies. The system will be used as a demonstration and teaching platform in undergraduate and graduate lecture and laboratory courses and in seminars on correlated microscopic and spectroscopic data and analysis. The tool will also be used in educational outreach activities, including programs that engage undergraduates from other institutions, and secondary-school mathematics and science teachers in summer-long research experiences.

Non-technical Abstract
This scientific imaging and spectroscopic instrumentation will combine different materials characterization and device probing methods to provide researchers with multi-channel scanning optical, electrical and electron-beam based imaging and analysis capabilities within a single tool. With this system, researchers will simultaneously probe, spatially resolve and correlate several attributes of materials, devices and biological systems on the scale of a hundred times smaller than a human hair, and in different gas environments and at different temperatures. Included among these are micro-structure and topology, chemistry, chemical bonding, mechanical stress and stiffness, and the behavior of electrons and the color of light emitted, reflected or scattered. This tool will allow researchers to design, develop and evaluate the performance of new materials and devices for applications ranging from environmental monitoring to medical diagnostics and drug delivery, from eco-friendly energy production and storage to high-performance materials for vehicles, ships and aircraft. This equipment and results obtained using it will also be integral parts of undergraduate and graduate curricula in lectures, laboratory modules, and demonstrations in which students learn to apply multi-channel spectroscopic mapping methods to design and analysis. The instrument will also be used in educational outreach activities, including programs that engage undergraduates from other institutions, and secondary-school mathematics and science teachers in summer-long research experiences. Finally, this capability will facilitate new interactions between industrial collaborators and Drexel faculty and their student researchers through industry co-op positions and senior design projects. These interactions among students, faculty and industrial collaborators will provide additional context for their education and research training, further strengthening Drexel's long tradition of excellence in providing co-operative educational experience.

Technical: In this Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) project, the growth and collective electronic excitation properties of quasi-one-dimensional semiconductor materials are investigated. The vapor-phase growth of multi-component, uniform- and tapered-diameter nanowires of group III-V semiconducting materials uses the technique of metallorganic chemical vapor disposition. The structural, electronic, and optical properties of the nanowires are investigated using high-resolution electron microscopy, optical excitation spectroscopies, resonant Raman scattering, and proximal characterization methods. These studies are to elucidate how topological driven strain, surface and interface structure, and band structure, and band bending influence the presence and properties of collective electronic excitation within semiconductor heterostructure materials systems. The research projects are carried out collaboratively among students and faculty at Drexel University and industrial scientists at Structured Materials Industries, Inc. (SMI). The research goal of this project is to understand how multi-component group III-V based semiconductor nanowire materials can be grown and processed in a manner that they enable confinement and control of charge-density waves for the purpose of tunable, resonant terahertz detection and emission.
Non-technical: The project addresses basic research issues in a topical area of materials science with high technological relevance. The fabrication of semiconductor nanowires and study of their collective electronic excitations and their response to electromagnetic waves would lead to applications in advancing the state-of-the-art in the fast and sensitive detection of terahertz and charged-particle radiation. This GOALI project provides opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students to receive training and accrue experience over extended stays in an industrial setting in areas highly relevant to their research and career interests. The project will also include international collaboration with scientists in Italy.

0922929
Baxter
Drexel U.

Technical Summary: THz radiation (0.1?10 x1012 Hz, ë~30µm?3mm) bridges the gap between electronics and visible/infrared optics and is a frontier region of scientific inquiry in physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, materials science, and engineering. However, there is a significant barrier to entry into THz science because of the required expertise and capital equipment. Accessible user facilities would transform THz science by enabling all new investigators to quickly acquire data without the need for specialized collaborations or access to accelerators. Toward that end, the PIs propose to acquire an ultrafast laser system for research and education in terahertz spectroscopy and sub-picosecond dynamics. The laser system will be housed in Drexel University?s Centralized Research Facilities, and it will be operated as the first bench-scale THz user facility in the nation. This laser system provides a combination of (1) access to THz radiation, (2) spectroscopy with sub-picosecond time resolution, and (3) a continuously tunable pulsed light source from UV to mid-IR. The laser source will be combined with different detection systems to enable terahertz time domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS), time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy (TRTS), and UV/Visible/IR transient absorption (TA). The system will provide critical data for multidisciplinary projects in many areas of national interest, including renewable energy, high-speed electronics, sensors, and medical diagnostics. The PIs? major projects include investigation of: (1) Electron transport and interfacial electron transfer in nanostructured semiconductors for solar cell applications, (2) THz detection via collective excitation of confined charge, (3) Complex oxide nanostructures and the role of molecular adsorbates, (4) Energy transfer in asymmetrically functionalized nanoparticles, and (5) Photophysics of quantum dots for medical diagnostics. The instrumentation will be used in the interdisciplinary education and training of the next generation of ultrafast and terahertz scientists. This facility will also strengthen existing outreach programs at Drexel, providing unique learning opportunities to diverse populations including underrepresented groups, undergraduate students, and K-12 teachers.

Layman Summary: This project will enable the first bench-scale Terahertz (THz) user facility in the nation through the acquisition of an ultrafast laser system that will be housed in Drexel University?s Centralized Research Facilities. The THz frequency region (0.1?10 x1012 Hz) of the electromagnetic spectrum lies at the interface between the infrared and the microwave regions, and it is ideal for investigating many different materials, including semiconductors, nanomaterials, proteins, DNA, and gas phase molecules. Improved understanding of these materials is important to diverse applications of national interest, including renewable energy, high-speed electronics, pharmaceuticals, medical diagnostics, and homeland security. However, THz radiation is difficult to generate and detect, and until now few scientists have had the facilities and experience to carry out THz experiments. The proposed user facility will significantly broaden participation in terahertz research, which will lead to many new and potentially transformative discoveries and will deepen understanding in a variety of fields. Society will benefit in many ways from the advances in technology resulting from use of the this instrument, with initial studies focused on efficient solar cells, faster computing, security screening, and medical diagnostics. Furthermore, the instrumentation will be used in the interdisciplinary education and training of the next generation of scientists, helping the U.S. to remain a leader in cutting-edge science and technology. This facility will also strengthen existing outreach programs at Drexel, providing unique learning opportunities to diverse populations including underrepresented groups, undergraduate students, and K-12 teachers.

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).

This project involves the renovation of the Drexel University Microfabrication Facility (MFF). Parts of the facility will be renovated to the standards of Class 100 and Class 1000 clean rooms. While the MFF houses a number of micro-fabrication and nano-fabrication instruments acquired through recent Major Research Instrumentation awards and other sources, the existing MFF is a low-dust environment rather than a true cleanroom and this limits the types of research that can be done there.

The renovated facility will be used for research in the areas of micro- and nanofluidics, Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems and Nano-Electro-Mechanical Systems, bioreactors, tissue engineering, biomechanics and biophysics, biosensors, lab-on-a-chip technology, surgical engineering, neuroengineering, optoelectronics, solar cells and alternative energy, colloidal suspension dynamics, and novel nanoelectronic devices, all of which require micro- and nanofabrication.

The facility provides research infrastructure. The facility will be used by researchers from both Drexel and the wider Philadelphia region. The project will support the research of a number of young faculty members from several different engineering departments. The users of the renovated facility will include undergraduates, graduate students and post-doctoral research associates. The MFF will be also be used in a number of outreach programs, including training and mentoring K-12 teachers and students from the Delaware Valley region.

This project is awarded under the Nanoelectronics for 2020 and Beyond competition, with support by multiple Directorates and Divisions at the National Science Foundation as well as by the Nanoelectronics Research Initiative of the Semiconductor Research Corporation.

TECHNICAL: The goal of this project is to create a new generation of low-power, high on-off current ratio, fast response switches. Field effect transistor (FET) switches are ubiquitous in the semiconductor industry, yet conventional FETs are constrained by the fundamental size, power and speed limits of electrons moving through silicon channels and manipulated by electrostatic gates. This project focuses on creating transistors that bypass these limits by incorporating novel channel and gate materials, and in which exotic electronic states can be manipulated. In particular, transistors are created by integrating high-mobility two-dimensional electronic channels - such as exist in a single atomic layer of carbon, or graphene - with multifunctional (e.g., electro-mechanical, magnetic) gates. These devices are then used to investigate enhanced switching capabilities - including those possessing novel charge-accumulating and storage characteristics, the use of low-loss collective excitations as a replacement to dissipative charge transport in FETs, and the development of large fan-out switches based on these concepts. The device architecture envisioned in this project provides an adaptable and reconfigurable platform capable of meeting multiple application demands and evolving with time to provide a test-bed for next generation computing, data storage, and sensing devices. Results will be achieved by close collaborations within a multidisciplinary team of materials scientists, chemists, and physicists from three universities (Drexel University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and University of Pennsylvania), who work together on first principles-based materials design, measurements, device fabrication and analysis.

NON-TECHNICAL: The success of this project can lead to a new paradigm in future nanoelectronics with impact on many applications of technological and economic importance. Concepts developed here enable devices having multiple capabilities and re-configurability, and therefore high functional density that may be attractive for computing, data storage, sensor, and other technologies. The combination of computational approaches, materials synthesis, characterization and nano-fabrication targeted at bringing together novel materials - such as graphene and multifunctional oxides - is expected to bridge multidisciplinary areas, thus opening up exciting opportunities to discover new phenomena. The multi-faceted challenges to be tackled in this project provide ample educational and training opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students for emerging interdisciplinary fields. Leveraging PIs' ongoing efforts and involvements in organizations promoting diversity, students from underrepresented groups are aggressively recruited with the aid of multi-campus summer research opportunities to be created through this project. The PIs are also dedicated to bringing the state-of-the-art research into the classroom, and advances made here enrich curricula of courses that the PIs teach. With the aid of extensive outreach infrastructure available across the three institutions involved, the PIs leverage results from this project to advocate nanoscience and technology to groups ranging from high school students and teachers to the general public.

The team has developed a new thin-film deposition technology for high-performance materials that is low energy, scalable, and potentially low cost. They recently reported via publication the formation of complex oxide perovskites in single crystalline hetero-epitaxial form and also specifically BiFeO3 in phase-pure polycrystalline form on SiO2/Si. This is important because the new technology enables production of a simple perovskite Pb-free single-crystal functional complex oxide films with crystalline quality, nanoscale control, and physical properties comparable to those obtained using much more expensive tools and processes. This technology could also be highly enabling in that it utilizes atomic layer deposition, thereby permitting conformal growth on high surface area per unit volume structures, and therefore a three- dimensional architecture may be realized. Replacement of Pb with Bi in these film structures gives a ferroelectric polarization with a larger charge per unit area, potentially enabling enhancements in device performance (e.g. non-volatile memory, wireless communications, and capacitors for energy storage).

Scaling and the roadmap is currently limited by MOCVD (and ALD) using lead zirconate titanate (PZT) because of inhomogeneities in Zr and Ti that result in nanoscale conformally-coated 3D structures that result in unacceptable variations in properties/performance. Thus, a process that uses a simple perovskite material would address this issue, particularly if it can outperform PZT. The customer need also relates to a technology that can deliver reduction in the use and waste disposal of Pb and Pb-based precursors, reduction in manufacturing cost through innovations in thin film deposition and process technology to reduce precursor waste, and an opportunity to increase the performance of existing technologies through a replacement material that has higher FE polarization (and therefore induced charge) and a process technology that is truly compatible with finer 3D nanoscale architectures to support scaling to future nodes.

Nontechnical Description: Next-generation devices require new classes of materials capable of advanced (multi-) functional response. In this regard, complex-oxide materials and interfaces have the potential for far-reaching impact. Of particular interest are opportunities to harness novel light-matter interactions to enable a range of applications. Controlling such interactions requires exacting production of materials and in-depth understanding of the mechanism(s) underlying the phenomena. For example, semiconductor heterostructures drive optoelectronics for solid-state lighting, communications, computing, and sensing and the subsequent introduction of nitride- and simple oxide-based materials has helped pushed such technologies into the ultraviolet emission range. New functionalities involving ultraviolet-emitting devices may enable faster encoding and manipulation of information, new modes of chemical detection and sensing, and more efficient solid-state lighting. This project explores opportunities for on-demand complex oxide-electronics through local material reconfiguration. It builds upon discoveries of conductivity at the interface of two insulators, and demonstration of reversible, local manipulation of conductance to produce tunable ultraviolet-light emission from such materials. The project actively promotes the training of next-generation scientists and engineers in technologically important and relevant fields critical for the sustained economic vitality of the United States, focuses efforts on the mentoring and training of students from historically underrepresented groups, and provides research co-op and international research experiences for student trainees.

Technical Description: In this project, a new optoelectronic materials paradigm is defined by the coupling of spatially- and chemically-selective chemisorption with sub-surface quantum well(s) formed at the interface(s) of two band insulators. Symmetry-breaking and electrostatic potential mismatch between constituent semiconductors at an interface results in novel phenomena inaccessible in the bulk. This emergent phenomena can, in some systems, be tuned extensively since a surface, and to some extent, an interface, is free to reconstruct structurally and electronically. Bringing a surface or sub-surface into equilibrium with a controlled environment enables local, reversible control of the electronic phase or functional state. The effects of adsorbate type and locality, of a symmetry-lowering field on the strength, energy, and spatial response of ultraviolet luminescence from one or more distinct sub-surface, two-dimensional electron liquid(s) exhibiting electron correlations are studied. In particular, the activities focus on understanding and ultimately controlling several distinguishing features: 1) how the steady-state ultraviolet light emission intensity changes in response to different adsorbates; 2) how the physical properties of the model system, as probed by changes in spectral emission, respond to externally applied fields; 3) how the ultraviolet luminescence, including locality and stability, can be controlled with external stimuli; and 4) what the introduction of multiple, closely-spaced quantum wells and/or other oxide heterojunction materials does to the response. These investigations advance understanding of radiative recombination in new model optoelectronic ultraviolet light-emitting systems defined not by bulk, interfacial or surface properties alone, but by coupling of sub-surface interfacial quantum well electronic structure to surface chemisorption.

Due to an inexhaustible supply of energy from the sun, conversion of sunlight into electricity by photovoltaics (PVs) is a promising long-term sustainable energy technology. In this NSF-Binational Science Foundation (BSF) project, Drexel University, in partnership with Bar-Ilan University in Israel, will conduct a fundamental research study on new materials design and synthesis strategy for producing optically-transparent semiconductors for efficient solar energy conversion. The new materials will be obtained through a combination of computational design of materials and advanced synthesis, processing, and property measurements. Devices will be prepared and evaluated using these materials, which will simultaneously and efficiently absorb ultraviolet and infrared sunlight, but transmit visible light, and convert the absorbed light efficiently into power. The new solar energy absorber paradigm, which relies on inexpensive, earth-abundant, non-toxic and stable materials, has the potential to transform PV solar power conversion capacity using already existing building windows and other building surfaces. The investigations undertaken in this project will advance fundamental knowledge on the photocurrent generation mechanism that promises to dramatically enhance solar power conversion efficiencies of photovoltaic cells based on ferroelectric oxides. This project also serves as ideal training for a cadre of talented young engineers, including those from historically underrepresented groups, to tackle important fundamental materials engineering challenges and participate in outreach activities as part of collaborative, interdisciplinary effort.

The novel, highly-efficient hot-carrier mechanism of solar energy conversion is promising for the use of ferroelectric oxide films in single absorber, transparent photovoltaics. This project will result in fundamental knowledge of the relationships between processing and the structural, optical and photo-generated charge transport properties and performance of transparent photovoltaic absorber films. The approach of the project uses a series of tightly coupled experimental and theoretical investigations. This research program combines aspects of advanced materials processing and device fabrication with fundamental materials design and understanding to achieve the unusual combination of infrared and ultraviolet light absorption, visible light transparency and functional ferroelectric properties for enabling novel transparent hot-carrier solar cells with efficiencies possibly beyond the Shockley-Queisser limit. Deposition and post-deposition processing protocols that enable the use of the semiconducting ferroelectric-type films for transparent photovoltaic absorbers will be researched, along with device fabrication, testing and analysis. While computational methods have been used for materials discovery, their use for fundamental studies of processing of cation-doped and oxygen vacancy-rich solid-solution semiconducting ferroelectric oxide perovskites will be one of the first examples for theory-guided processing research. Building on the collaborations between the PI and his Israel-based collaborator, comparison of theory and experiment will provide feedback for the physical vapor deposition-based film synthesis effort and will enhance the accuracy of the first principles density functional theoretical-based computational approach.