Department of Mechanical Engineering

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Chris Dames
Assistant professor

Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2006 A311 Bourns Hall Riverside, Ca 92521 Phone: 951-827-2354 Fax: 951-827-2899 Email: cdames@engr.ucr.edu Web: www.engr.ucr.edu/~cdames/

Chris Dames received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2006, and his B.S. and M.S. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1998 and 2001, respectively. From 1998-1999 he worked as a research engineer for Solo Energy Corp., Alameda, CA.

Research Topics

Current research is directed towards a deeper understanding of the thermal, electrical, and optical properties of nanowires and nanotubes, with a particular focus on energy-conversion applications. Both modeling and experiments (including at the single-nanowire level) are used to understand and control a range of classical and quantum size effects for improved device performance. In collaboration with specialists in materials synthesis, a second, closely-related research direction is the integration of nanowires into massively parallel devices, and predicting and optimizing the device-level performance.

Selected Publications

C. Dames, S. Chen, C. T. Harris, J. Y. Huang, Z. F. Ren, M. S. Dresselhaus, and G. Chen, "A modified high-resolution TEM for thermoelectric properties measurements of nanowires and nanotubes", Proc. of SPIE Optics East, Vol. 6370, Paper 6370-14, Boston, MA, Oct. 1-4 (2006).

C. Dames and G. Chen, "1, 2, and 3 omega methods for measurements of thermal properties," Rev. Sci. Instrum. 76, 124902 (2005).

C. Dames, G. Chen, B. Poudel, W. Wang, J. Huang, Z. Ren, Y. Sun, J. I. Oh, C. Opeil, S.J., and M. J. Naughton, "Low dimensional phonon heat capacity of titanium dioxide nanotubes," Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 031901 (2005).

C. Dames and G. Chen, "Thermal conductivity of nanostructured
thermoelectric materials," in CRC Thermoelectrics Handbook: Macro to Nano, ed. D. Rowe, CRC Press (2005).

G. Chen, A. Narayanaswamy, and C. Dames, "Engineering nanoscale phonon and photon transport for direct energy conversion," Superlatt. Microstruct. 35, 161 (2004).

C. Dames and G. Chen, "Theoretical phonon thermal conductivity of Si-Ge superlattice nanowires," J. Appl. Phys. 95, 682 (2004).

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