UNH Fullerene Physics Home Page

           

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Olof E. Echt

Professor of Physics

DeMeritt Hall, Rm 211
Department of Physics
University of New Hampshire
Durham, NH 03824-3568, USA

Voice: (603) 862-3548 (office)
(603) 862-0011 (lab)
(603) 862-1950 (secretary)
Fax: (603) 862-2998
E-mail: olof.echt@unh.edu

Office Hours: MWF 8:30 - 10:30
and by appointment

Please click on the text to go to the respective pages.

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Professional Interests:

Condensed matter, atomic clusters, fullerenes, nanostructures, thin films.

Cluster science is devoted to matter in highly disperse form, comprising as few as two or as many as thousands of atoms per particle. The field is interdisciplinary to condensed matter physics, molecular physics, materials science, and physical chemistry. The central issue in cluster science is the evolution of properties as the particles grow in size. The accompanying changes are often pronounced, as small systems feature a discrete number of vibrational and electronic states, while condensed matter is more appropriately characterized by its phonon spectrum and electronic band structure. For example, most of the optical and electronic features of metals or semiconductors develop only if a large number of atoms are held together in close proximity.

Our current research focuses on the following two topics:

Metallofullerenes: Fullerenes are hollow carbon clusters comprising several dozens of atoms. The most famous of them is buckyball which contains 60 atoms; it has the shape of a soccerball. Endohedral fullerenes contain one or more atoms in the cage. We bombard fullerenes by metal ions and analyze the products by time-of-flight mass spectrometry.
Hard carbon coatings: In collaboration with other research groups at UNH and at the Wright Air Force Base, we have begun a program to develop nanostructured metal carbide coatings with improved hardness, toughness and tribological properties. In our lab, films will be deposited by pulsed laser deposition (PLD); the energy distributions of neutral and charged particles in the plume will be measured.

 

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Webmaster: Olof N. Echt  This page was last updated:  Sunday, February 14, 1999 09:23:38 PM