Jon-Paul Maria

Jon-Paul’s research group, J.-P. Maria Group, pursues new materials discovery, property engineering, advances in synthesis science, and new integration strategies to merge diverse materials. Laboratory activities of interest include physical vapor deposition, ceramic synthesis by powder processing, structural characterization by diffraction, and microstructure measurement using scanning probe and scanning electron microscopy. The J.-P. Maria group manages a 1,500-square-foot vacuum processing lab that hosts nine sputter tools, e-beam evaporation, and two laser ablation systems. The J.-P. Maria Group members currently pursue research in the areas of ferroelectric thin films, high permittivity materials, novel semiconductor contacts, oxide epitaxy, infra-red plasmonic materials, and entropy engineered/stabilized crystals.

Maria's research focuses on the processing science issues associated with synthesizing integrated systems for intelligent microwave communication, telemetry, and radar systems. Specifically, his team designs and fabricates microwave circuit components using novel materials, processing conditions, and integration approaches. A specific focus of this work is to replace expensive or difficult-to-manufacture materials with inexpensive alternatives that do not compromise performance. This requires that they fundamentally understand the materials science of processing as, in many cases, they are dealing with system components that have narrow windows of stability.