Peter Pauzauskie received BS degrees in chemical engineering, chemistry, and mathematics from Kansas State University in 2002 after pursuing undergraduate research in the chemistry laboratory of Prof. Ken Klabunde where he focused on understanding complex surface reactions between magnesium oxide nanocrystals and methyl iodide molecules. After being recognized with the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship he pursued a Ph.D. in physical chemistry with Prof. Peidong Yang at the University of California, Berkeley where his dissertation focused on the synthesis, characterization, and optoelectronic integration of inorganic nanowires. After graduating in 2007 he started a post-doc in the Chemical Sciences Division of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a DOE Lawrence Fellow under the direction of Dr. Joe H. Satcher, Jr. where he focused on novel diamond- and graphene- based carbon aerogel materials. In 2010 Prof. Pauzauskie started as an assistant professor in the Materials Science & Engineering department at the University of Washington. He is currently an Associate Professor and has been recognized with an AFOSR Young Investigator Award and well as a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation. Since 2014 he has held a dual appointment in the Physical & Computational Sciences Directorate at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Research Description
Just as the 20th century was the century of the electron, the 21st century will be the century of the photon. Optical fibers already form the backbone of the internet-based information-economy as recognized by the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics. In the biological sciences, laser-induced fluorescence has been a pivotal technology employed both in sequencing the human genome and in achieving near-molecular resolution with optical imaging.
Nanometer-scale optoelectronic materials have attracted a great amount of attention in recent years for use in biomedical cancer-research as fluorescent probes, in hyperthermal cancer therapy, and in tracking the molecular-scale chemical processes that make life possible. One-dimensional NWs are a critical link between the micron-scale world of individual cells and the nanoscale domain of single macromolecules given NWs’ micron-scale lengths and cross sections frequently below 10 nanometers. Additionally, interesting physical phenomena emerge at nanometer length scales. For instance, highly focused laser radiation can exert optical forces on inorganic nanostructures, providing contact-free 3-dimensional control over the particle's center of mass.
Research projects are focused squarely on the emerging field of Nanoscale Opto-Mechanical Systems (NOMS) to pursue challenging experimental questions in the molecular engineering of advanced materials for biosensors and nanomedicine. Experimental efforts are aimed at answering the question, "How can optomechanical materials be used to control molecular interactions at nanometer length scales?" The group's initial experimental efforts are directed at the molecular surface functionalization of photonic nanowires for parallel subwavelength biosensing as well as the optoelectronic patterning of nanomaterials for the control of chemical reactions.
Group members employ a number of experimental and computational techniques including organometallic chemical vapor deposition for vapor-liquid-solid nanowire synthesis, air-sensitive solution phase synthesis of ternary inorganic nanocrystals, x-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, synchrotron radiation (NEXAFS, STXM, XRD), time correlated single photon counting, Raman spectroscopy, cryogenic visible and near-infrared photoluminescence, cell culturing, nonlinear least squares data analysis, as well as finite element computational methods for the design and simulation of optoelectronic nanostructures.