Professor of Materials Science & Engineering
Director, Beckman Institute

Office:
1301 Beckman Institute

Mail Address:
Beckman Institute
405 North Mathews
Urbana, IL 61801

Telephone: 217-244-8373
Fax: 217-244-0987
E-mail: wiltzius@uiuc.edu

Pierre Wiltzius received his Ph.D. in physics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ), Zurich, Switzerland in 1981. He was at Bell Laboratories (Lucent Technologies, formerly AT&T) between 1984 and 2001, where he was most recently the Director of Semiconductor Physics Research. He was appointed Director of the Beckman Institute in September 2001; a professor in both the Departments of Materials Science and Engineering, and Physics; and a full-time Beckman Institute faculty member in the Nanoelectronics and Biophotonics Group. His fields of professional interest are soft-condensed matter, colloidal self-assembly, photonic crystals and microphotonics.

Honors and Awards

Fellow of: American Physical Society
Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Senior Member of the IEEE; R&D100 Innovation
Award from R&D Magazine (2001)
Industrial Visitor of the James Franck Institute at the University of Chicago (1994)
Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, Bell Laboratories (1991)
Robert Mehrabian Distinguished Lecturer at U.C.S.B. (1987)
NATO Fellowship (1983)

Description of Research

Wiltzius' research interests are in self-assembly processes in soft-condensed matter systems, e.g., polymers, liquid crystals and colloids. Colloidal self-assembly, in particular, is a promising approach to build materials for photonics applications. 3-dimensional "photonic crystals" will be building blocks for highly integrated, functional microphotonic devices. Research topics of interest are:

• Understanding and control of defect formation in crystals during self-assembly.
• Optical characterization of photonic materials, including fluorescence lifetime enhancement of dyes inside crystalline structures.
• Electro-optically active photonic materials with imbibed liquid crystals, e.g. switchable Bragg gratings.
• Develop methods to assemble colloids into non-FCC crystals, e.g., CsCl, AB2 or diamond-like crystalline photonic materials. This might be facilitated through biologically inspired approaches by using colloids which are functionalized with appropriate surface groups (DNA oligomers, antigen-antibodies). Other approaches to creating nanostructured microperiodic materials include multibeam holography, two- and multiphoton lithography, and soft-lithography.

Selected Publications

R. A. Barry and P. Wiltzius, Humidity-Sensing Inverse Opal Hydrogels, Langmuir, 22, 1369 (2006)

S. Takeda and P. Wiltzius, Self-Assembled Colloidal Crystals for Photonic Applications and Outlook, J. of the Ceram. Soc. of Japan, 41, 358 (2006)

J. W. Rinne and P. Wiltzius, Design of Holographic Structures using Genetic Algorithms, Optics Express, 14, 9909 (2006)

S. Takeda and P. Wiltzius, Growth of Highly Ordered Colloidal Crystals Using Self-Assembly at Liquid-Liquid Interfaces, Chem Mater., 18, 5643 (2006)

M. A. Bevan, J. A. Lewis, P. V. Braun, and P. Wiltzius, Structural Evolution of Colloidal Crystals with Increasing Ionic Strength, Langmuir, 20, 7045 (2004)

P. V. Braun and P. Wiltzius, Macroporous Materials – Electrochemically Grown Photonic Crystals, Current Opinions in Colloid and Interface Science 7, 116 (2002)

S. Yang, M. Megens, J. Aizenberg, P. Wiltzius, P. M. Chaikin, and W. B. Russel, Creating Periodic Three-Dimensional Structures by Multibeam Interference of Visible Laser, Chem. Mater. 14, 2831 (2002)

P. Mach, P. Wiltzius, M. Megens, D. A. Weitz, K. H. Lin, T. C. Lubensky, and A. G. Yodh, Electro-Optic Response and Switchable Bragg Diffraction for Liquid Crystals in Colloid-Templated Materials, Europhys. Lett., 58, 679 (2002)

P. Mach, P. Wiltzius, M. Megens, D. A. Weitz, K. H. Lin, T. C. Lubensky, and A. G. Yodh , Switchable Bragg Diffraction from Liquid Crystal in Colloid-Templated Structures, Phys. Rev E, 65, 031720 (2002)

P. V. Braun and P. Wiltzius, Electrochemical Fabrication of 3D Microperiodic Porous Materials, Adv. Mater., 13, 482 (2001)

P. Mach, R. Nortrup, J. A Rogers, and P. Wiltzius Monolithically Integrated, Flexible Display of Polymer-Dispersed Liquid Crystal Driven by Rubber-Stamped Organic Thin-Film Transistors, Appl. Phys. Lett.. 78, 3592 (2001)

P. V. Braun, R. W. Zehner, C. A. White, M. K. Weldon, C. Kloc, S. S. Patel and P. Wiltzius, High Dielectric Contrast 3D Photonic Structures through Melt-Imbibing of Colloidal Crystals, Adv. Mater., 13, 721 (2001)

P. V. Braun, R. W. Zehner, C. A. White, M. K. Weldon, C. Kloc, S. S. Patel and P. Wiltzius, Optical Spectroscopy of High Dielectric Contrast 3D Photonic Crystals, Europhysics Letters, 56, 207 (2001)

A. Polman and P. Wiltzius, Materials Science Aspects of Photonic Crystals, MRS Bulletin, August 2001

K. Wada, T. F. Krauss, P. Wiltzius, K. Asakawa, E. L. Thomas, Eds., Microphotonics – Materials, Physics and Applications, Symposium Proceedings, Vol. 637, Materials Research Society (2001)

J. Aizenberg, P. V. Braun, and P. Wiltzius, Patterned Colloidal Deposition Controlled by Electrostatic and Capillary Forces, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 2997 (2000)

S. Friebel, J. Aizenberg, S. Abad, and P. Wiltzius, Ultraviolet Lithography of Self-Assembled Monolayers for Submicron Patterned Deposition, Appl. Phys. Lett. 77, 2406 (2000)

P. V. Braun and P. Wiltzius, Electrochemical Growth of Three Dimensionally Microperiodic Structures, Nature, 402, 603, (1999)

People

• Prof. Pierre Wiltzius
• Dr. Masao Miyake
• Dr. Joe Geddes
• Robert Barry
• Andrew Brzezinski
• Christy Chen
• Sidhartha Gupta
• Vinayak Ramanan
• James Rinne