Professor

Department of Ceramic Engineering
222 McNutt Hall
Rolla, MO 65409-0330 
Ph. (573) 341-6025
Fax.(573) 341-6934
Email: rwschwar@umr.edu

The activities of the group are focused at developing a fundamental understanding of electronic ceramic materials (dielectrics, piezoelectrics, and transparent conducting oxides) to develop new or improved materials, devices and processing routes.

In the dielectric materials area, efforts are aimed at developing anti-ferroelectric ceramics for high energy density capacitors. These devices have both military (pulsed power) and commercial (hybrid vehicle) applications. The key challenge to the development of these materials is the preparation of materials with high breakdown strength. Other efforts in the field of dielectrics involve the development of linear dielectric compositions with high dielectric constant at high applied electric field.

In the field of piezoelectrics, we are investigating "stress-engineering" of composite structures to maximize electromechanical response. While piezoelectric composites have been investigated for a variety of underwater applications as well as land-based actuation applications, little attention has been given to engineering the response of the structures to applied stress to improve the sensitivity of the device. Both experimental and finite element analysis are used as tools for the development of these new devices.

In the thin film area, we are working toward the development of transparent conducting oxides for sensor protection devices. The protection devices will be inserted in the optical path of infra-red sensors to protect the sensors against damage by laser threats. TCO materials are required because of the need for the device to possess high optical transparency in the off state. We are also working to model thin film microstructural evolution. In this area, we have recently developed a pixel-by-pixel approach to simulate microstructural evolution of the amorphous film into the crystalline state. We plan to extend this approach by further characterizing the thermodynamic state of the amorphous intermediate phase.

The expertise of the group encompasses:
" Dielectric, piezoelectric, and ferroelectric ceramics
" Materials processing, including chemical synthetic routes