Dr. Alexander A. Balandin, Distinguished Professor and University of California Presidential Chair Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering received two new grants in the nanotechnology field. The one-year $150 K proof-of-concept project funded by the Defense Advance Research Project Agency (DARPA) is entitled “Phonon Engineered Materials for Fine-Tuning the Career Recombination.” This project deals with an application of the nanoscale phonon engineering concept, pioneered by Professor Balandin, to the development of the next generation of devices that enable advanced electro-optic detection, sensing and imaging. The main idea of the approach is tuning the acoustic phonon energy dispersion in nanostructured materials for achieving optimum electron – phonon scattering rates, and corresponding improvement in the device performance. Phonons are the quanta of the crystal lattice vibrations that scatter electrons and conduct heat in semiconductors. The second, three-year $264 K project, funded by the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), is entitled “Fabrication and Testing of Quasi-1D van der Waals Metal Interconnects”. The goal of this project is development of novel interconnects providing an ultimate atomic thickness limit of the cross-section. The technology will utilize quasi-one-dimensional (1D) van der Waals metals, which can be grown into individual single crystalline atomic threads with extraordinary current-carrying capability. Professor Balandin’s research group has already demonstrated the first quasi-1D crystalline nanowires with the current-densities exceeding copper by more than an order-of-magnitude. Professor Balandin will collaborate with Professor Ludwig Bartels, Department of Chemistry on implementation of this project.