Amorphous Materials

Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 1.5 hours/session, 2 sessions/week

Course Overview

This course examines the science and engineering of amorphous materials, with emphasis on the nature of the amorphous state, glass formation, structure, processing, properties, and applications. Topics include fundamentals of the amorphous state, classes of amorphous materials, glass-forming theories, phase-change materials, viscosity, shaping, relaxation, mechanical behavior, strengthening, metallic glasses, electrical transport, amorphous silicon, optical properties, optical fibers and waveguides, characterization methods, and a student-selected special-topic lecture.

Course Organization

The course includes in-class demos, individual project meetings, a final project presentation, and pick-your-own-topic lectures. One in-class demo includes a joint session with the MIT Glass Lab.

Learning Goals

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

• define the amorphous state and glass transition
• distinguish major classes of amorphous materials
• explain kinetic and structural theories of glass formation
• relate viscosity and relaxation to processing
• analyze mechanical, electrical, and optical behavior
• understand major application areas such as phase-change memory, metallic glass, macroelectronics, and waveguides
• evaluate methods used to characterize amorphous materials

Course Materials

Principal references include Fundamentals of Inorganic Glasses, Introduction to Glass Science and Technology, Glass Science, and Springer Handbook of Glass. Additional topic-specific readings are assigned in selected lectures.

Student Project

• Project proposal: The proposal is limited to 4 pages, including figures, tables, and references, in 12-point Times New Roman on letter-size pages with 1-inch margins. It should include motivation and significance, a brief review of the state of the art, the proposed technical approach, anticipated outcome, and one executive summary slide. 
• Student-selected topic proposal: Topics must be relevant to amorphous materials. If more topics are proposed than available lecture slots, we will use a voting system. 
• Project presentation
• Term paper due

The paper is limited to 8 pages, including figures, tables, and references, in 12-point Times New Roman on letter-size pages with 1-inch margins. It should include motivation and significance, current state of the art, research methodology, results and discussion, and conclusions. Document templates are posted on Canvas.

Assignments and Grading

• Homework assignments: 30% (Including three problem sets; discussions are allowed and encouraged, but each student is expected to complete the assignments independently.)
• Design review project: 70%
  • Project proposal: 20%
  • Term paper: 30%
  • Final presentation: 20%

Lecture Sequence

1. Fundamentals of the Amorphous State 
2. Classes of Amorphous Materials 
3. Glass Forming Theories 
4. Phase Change Data Storage 
5. Viscosity of Glass 
6. Glass Shaping
7. Viscoelasticity and Relaxation 
8. Mechanical Properties 
9. Glass Strengthening 
10. Metallic Glass 
11. Electrical and Transport Properties 
12. Amorphous Silicon Macroelectronics 
13. Optical Properties 
14. Optical Fibers and Waveguides 
15. Characterizing the Amorphous State 
16. Student-selected topic lecture

Student-Selected Topic Lecture

The final lecture slot is reserved for a student-selected topic relevant to amorphous materials.