Department of Materials Science and Engineering

R. Bruce van Dover received his Ph.D. degree (1980) in Applied Physics from Stanford following a B.S. degree (1974) in Electrical Engineering/Engineering Physics from Princeton (summa cum laude). In 1980 he joined Bell Laboratories, (Murray Hill, NJ) where he conducted research in the science and technology of superconducting, magnetic, and electronic materials and devices. In 2002 he joined Cornell University as a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering to more fully engage his interest in undergraduate and graduate education He has been highly productive during his career with over two hundred research publications, book chapters, and encyclopedia articles, and over thirty US Patents as well as many patents issued overseas. He has lectured on these materials in Europe, Japan, and across the US at many universities and topical conferences, as well as for general audiences. His research has had an enormous impact, as evidenced by over 12000 cumulative citations, averaging 68 citations per publication, with an “h-index” of 49 (i.e., 49 publications with at least 49 citations), as reported by ISI. He is included on the ISI “highly cited” list (www.isihighlycited.com). His research group currently comprises ten undergraduates and nine graduate students. He actively participates in professional society activities, and is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He was pleased to serve as a founding Officer of the Topical Group on Magnetism and Its Applications, a unit of the American Physical Society.

Prof. van Dover’s research is currently focused on exploring the properties of dielectric, optical, magnetic, and intermetallic thin films. In many cases we exploit high-throughput techniques to facilitate the understanding of novel materials. We also use high-throughput techniques—specifically thin film composition spreads—to discover new materials, exploring chemical systems that have not been thoroughly mapped by conventional one-off experiments, and for which there is neither empirical nor theoretical guidance regarding structure/composition/property relations.

For example, we use thin film deposition to explore complex amorphous dielectrics. Single-cation amorphous dielectrics such as SiO2 and Ta2O5 are widely used and have been extensively investigated for many years, but amorphous multi-cation oxides have only begun to be investigated recently. We use thin film composition spreads to identify and understand basic structure/composition/property relations in two- and three- cation systems, as well as to develop improved materials for scientific and technological applications. In one project we are seeking to achieve a high charge density, as needed for DRAM capacitors or for gating charge into semiconductors. One material discovered while Prof. van Dover was at Bell Labs, an amorphous Zr0.2Sn0.2Ti0.6O2 composition, can support a charge density eight times higher than SiO2. We are now using composition spreads to try to understand the mechanism behind this world-record performance.

Composition spreads are also central to our work in the Cornell Fuel Cell Institute (link to http://cfci.ccmr.cornell.edu/). Intermetallic compounds have been shown to provide unique advantages for use in mobile fuel cells (e.g., for powering laptops or automobiles). We are conducting a broad search for multielement materials that can yield improved catalytic activity, decreased poisoning by impurities in the fuel, and/or lower cost. This project is conducted in close collaboration with the Directors of the Cornell Fuel Cell Institute, Profs. Abruña and DiSalvo.

Our composition spreads are synthesized using cosputtering from spatially separated (usually elemental metal) magnetron sputter sources, a technique pioneered by Prof. van Dover in the early 1980’s. For this purpose we have three custom-built sputtering chambers: a system designed for metal deposition of up to three elements at a time, a system designed for metal and ceramic (carbide, nitride, and oxide) deposition with four confocal sources, and a system designed for oxide deposition using 90º off-axis sputtering.

We also have extensive measurement capabilities, including electrical measurements of materials ranging from superconductors to insulators at frequencies from DC to 6 GHz and magnetic measurements (SQUID magnetometer and vibrating-sample magnetometer). these measurements can be executed from cryogenic temperatures (as low as 0.3 K) to 1000 ºC. We also do basic optical measurements and electrochemical measurements of catalyst activity. Many other characterization techniques are accomplished using the extensive facilities and infrastructure available at Cornell through the major scientific centers.

Active projects include research on

• complex amorphous dielectrics for charge storage (e.g., for DRAM applications and field-effect gating of charge in exotic semiconductors
• complex amorphous dielectrics for energy storage
• complex crystalline dielectrics and ferroelectrics
• multi-cation transparent conducting oxides
• granular magnetic systems for UHF devices
• ScN-based materials for photovoltaic applications
• intermetallic compounds as catalysts at the anode in proton-exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells
• inhomogeneous metal and metal/oxide systems as PEM fuel cell anode and cathode catalysts
• carbide and nitride-containing materials for PEM fuel cell anode catalysts

1. N. C. Woo and R. B. van Dover, “High Throughput Combinatorial Studies of Local Stress in Thin Film Composition Spreads, ” accepted for publication in to Rev. Sci. Instrum.
2. R. B. van Dover and L. F. Schneemeyer, "The Codeposited Composition Spread Approach to High-Throughput Discovery/Exploration of Inorganic Materials," Macromolecular Rapid Communications, 25, 150 (2004).
3. M. Prochaska, Jing Jin; D. Rochefort, Lin Zhuang, F. J. DiSalvo, H. D. Abruna, and R. B. van Dover, “High throughput screening of electrocatalysts for fuel cell applications,” Rev. Sci. Instr. 77, 54104-1-8, 2006
4. S. D. Kirby and R. B. van Dover, “An approach to achieving a negative index of refraction using
5. coincident resonances”, accepted for publication in J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.
6.  Kirby, S.D, Polking, M.; van Dover, R.B. “Epitaxial (SrTiO3/NiO)n/MgO multiferroic heterostructure” J. Vac. Sci. Tech. A 25, 37-41 (2007)
7. Correlation between temperature coefficient of resonant frequency and tetragonality ratio
8. Ji-Won Choi ; van Dover, R.B. J. Am. Cer. Soc., “Correlation between temperature coefficient of resonant frequency and tetragonality ratio” 89, 1144-6 (2006)
9. Combinatorial exploration of novel thin film amorphous oxides
10. Downey, K.E; van Dover, R.B.; Bhagwat, A.; Gaeta, A. 2005 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) (IEEE Cat. No. 05TH8796), 2005, pt. 1, p 77-9 Vol. 1
11. W. Syed, R. B. van Dover; J. R. Petrie, J.R.; Mitchell, M.D.; Hammer, D.A. Technique to measure sub-microsecond magnetic field pulses using magnetic (CoPt) thin filmsApplied Physics Letters, v 87, n 18, 31 Oct. 2005, p 182505-1-3
12. R. B. van Dover and L. F. Schneemeyer “The codeposited composition spread approach to high-throughput discovery/exploration of inorganic materials,” Macromolecular. Rapid. Comm. 25, 150-157 (2004)
13. R. B. van Dover and L. F. Schneemeyer, "The Codeposited Composition Spread Approach to High-Throughput Discovery/Exploration of Inorganic Materials," Macromolecular Rapid Communications, vol. 25, pp. 150-157, 2004.
14. R B van Dover, T Siegrist, L F Schneemeyer, M Green and L Manchanda, “Composition-dependent crystallization of alternative gate dielectrics,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 83, 1459 (2003)
15. G. D. Wilk, M. L. Green, M. Y. Ho, B. W. Busch, T. W. Sorsch, F. P. Klemens, B. Brijs, R. B. van Dover, A. Kornblit, T. Gustafsson, E. Garfunkel, S. Hillenius, D. Monroe, P. Kalavade, and J. M. Hergenrother, "Improved film growth and flatband voltage control of ALD HfO2 and Hf-Al-O with n+ poly-Si gates using chemical oxides and optimized post-annealing," in 2002 Symposium on VLSI Technology. Digest of Technical Papers (Cat. No.01CH37303). Piscataway, NJ, USA: IEEE, 2002, pp. 88-9.
16. I Takeuchi, R B van Dover and H Koinuma, "Combinatorial Synthesis and Evaluation of Functional Inorganic Materials Using Thin-Film Techniques," MRS Bulletin 27, 301 (2002)
17. L. H. Chen, S. L. Cheng, C. T. Hsieh,Y. H. Shih, S. Jin, S, and R. B. van Dover, “Ultrahigh frequency properties of amorphous Co-Fe-Zr-B thin films” IEEE Trans. Mag., 37, 2242-4 (2001)
18. R. B. van Dover, L. F. Schneemeyer, and R. M. Fleming “Discovery of a useful thin film dielectric using a composition spread approach,” Nature 392, 162 (1998).

Education

• B. S. Electrical Engineering/Engineering Physics, summa cum laude, Princeton University, 1974
• M. A. Applied Physics, Stanford University, 1975
• Ph.D. Applied Physics, Stanford University, 1980, thesis advisor: M. R. Beasley

Appointments

• 1980-1999: Member of the Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ
• 1999-2002: Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff, Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies/ Agere Systems
• 2001-2004: Adjunct Professor of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, New York
• 2002-present: Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
• 2006-present; Director of Graduate Studies, Field of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY