Assistant Professor
Wu,Kuo-An

My research interests lie in theoretical understanding of interfacial morphology and pattern formation in nonequilibrium systems. These subjects occurs at different length and time scales ranging from materials to biological systems. For example, during solidification the interfacial anisotropy plays a crucial role in determining the morphology of crystal growth, we have theoretically shown that the anisotropy originates from underlying crystal symmetries and is closely related to the different decay rate of density waves. Another interesting example is the rich nanophase behavior of polyelectrolyte gels in poor solvent. We have demonstrated that how the nanophase in polyelectrolyte gels modulates its characteristic length scale and the possibility of controlling solvent channels by manipulating environmental stimuli.

I am also interested in continuum modeling of materials at different length scales, in particular, the atomistic length scales. Over the last few years, the "phase field crystal" method has emerged as an attractive computational approach to tackle problems where atomistic and continuum scales are tightly coupled. We have employed this method to explore interesting phenomena such as nano-island formation (stress-induced instability), evolution of nanocrystalline grain growth, interfacial anisotropy at equilibrium, etc. In addition, we have developed a phase field crystal model for face-centered cubic lattices and stable fcc-liquid interfaces by coupling two different sets of crystal density waves. We have also presented a systematic way to control crystalline symmetries for this method.