Faculty
Chris Dames
Assistant professor
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).
