Dr. J.S. Preston

Professor
Department of Engineering Physics

McMaster University
1280 Main Street West, Hamilton
Ontario, Canada  L8S 4L7

office: ABB/428
email: prestonj@mcmaster.ca
voice: (905) 525-9140 x 27294
fax: (905) 527-8409
homepage:  http://engphys.mcmaster.ca/~preston

B.Eng. (McMaster), M.Sc., Ph.D. (Toronto)

Research Interests

The overarching theme of my research group is the application of lasers in the creation, fabrication and analysis of novel materials that are of interest for future devices. A major focus of our current work is the need for better materials and processes for solar cells.

Pulsed Laser Deposition

We operate three chambers for laser ablative deposition of thin films: one optimized for very pure materials, one for large area deposition and most recently a new UHV chamber for oxygen sensitive materials.  One aspect of developing novel systems is that extensive characterization studies are always required.  We make extensive use of the world-class facilities available in the Brockhouse Materials Research Institute including the Canadian Centre for Electron Microscopy (http://ccem.mcmaster.ca/) and the McMaster Analytical X-Ray Facility (MAX).

Self-Assembly of Epitaxial Nanostructures

An area of particular interest to my group is the exploration of the epitaxial arrangements that are possible for dissimilar material systems.  Recent work has looked at gold on spinel crystals and CdTe nanostructures on sapphire. Nanoscale pillars, wires, pyramids and globes can self-assemble driven by strain and surface tension.

Photovoltaics

We have current projects looking at novel enhancements to silicon solar cells, new types of II-VI solar cells and hybrid cells using nanostructures and organic materials.  We are also developing entirely new material systems that offer at least the potential of exceptional photovoltaic performance. I am also the Director of the NSERC CREATE Program in Photovoltaics; more information is available at photovoltaics.mcmaster.ca.

 

Selected Recent Publications

S. Neretina, R.A. Hughes, G. Stortz,  J. S Preston,. P Mascher,

The rapid prototyping of textured amorphous surfaces for the graphoepitaxial deposition of CdTe films using focused ion beam lithography, Applied Physics 102,  259-264  (2011).

A.P. Yuen, A.M.Hor, S.M. Jovanovic, J.S. Preston, R.A. Klenkler, N.M. Bamsey, R.O.Loutfy, Improved stability of solution processed photovoltaic devices using PQT-12,

Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells, 94: 2455-2458   (2010).

Y.P. Zhang, R.A. Hughes, J.F. Britten, J.S. Preston, G.A. Botton, and M. Niewczas,

Self-activated reversibility in the magnetically induced reorientation of martensitic variants in ferromagnetic Ni-Mn-Ga films, Phys. Rev. B 81, #054406, (2010).

S. Goodnick, A. Korkin, P. Krstic, P. Mascher, J.S. Preston, A. Zaslavsky,

 Semiconductor nanotechnology: novel materials and devices for electronics, photonics and renewable energy applications, Nanotechnology 21 #130201, (2010).

G.A. Devenyi, J.F. Li, R.A. Hughes, A.C. Shi, P. Mascher and J.S. Preston,

Epitaxially Driven Formation of Intricate Supported Gold Nanostructures on a Lattice-Matched Oxide Substrate, Nanoletters 9, 4258-4263, (2009).

D. Keogh, Z. Chen Z, R.A. Hughes, A. Dabkowski, O. Marinov, C. Maunder, L. Gunawan,  M.J. Deen, J.S. Preston, G.A. Botton, (100) MgAl2O4 as a lattice-matched substrate for the epitaxial thin film deposition of the relaxor ferroelectric PMN-PT, Appl. Phys. A. 98, 187-194 (2009).

S. Neretina, E.C. Dreaden, W. Qian, M.A. El-Sayed, R.A. Hughes, J.S. Preston P. Mascher,

The Dependence of the Plasmon Field Induced Nonradiative Electronic Relaxation Mechanisms on the Gold Shell Thickness in Vertically Aligned CdTe-Au Core-Shell Nanorods, Nanoletters 9, 3772-3779 (2009).

S. Neretina, R.A. Hughes, G.A. Devenyi, N.V. Sochinskii, J.S. Preston and P. Mascher,

The role of substrate surface termination in the deposition of  CdTe on  sapphire, Appl. Phys. A 96 429-433 (2009).

Y. Shao*, R.A. Hughes, A. Dabkowski, J.F. Britten, J.S. Preston and G.A. Botton,

The role of lattice misfit strains in the deposition of epitaxial (Ba1-ySry)Ti0.5Nb0.5O3 films, J. Crystal Growth 311, 2753-2758 (2009).

Y.P. Zhang, R.A. Hughes, J.S. Preston, G.A. Botton GA, M. Niewczas,

 Texture and Microstructure studies of films of Ni-Mn-Ga produced by R.F. sputtering and pulsed laser deposition, Advances in Science and Technology 59 11-17 (2009).

A.P. Yuen, J.S. Preston, A.M. Hor, R. Klenkler, E.Q.B. Macbebe, E.E. van Dyk and R.O. Loutfy, Blend composition study of poly(3,3 '''-didodecylquaterthiophene)/[6,6]-phenyl C-61 butyric acid methyl ester solution processed organic solar cells, Journal of Applied Physics 105 016105 (2009).

Y. Shao, G.A. Botton, R.A. Hughes, A. Dabkowski, G. Radtke, W.H. Gong, and J.S. Preston, Structural and transport properties of epitaxial niobium-doped BaTiO3 films, APL 93, 192114 (2008).

S. Neretina, W. Qian, E. Dreaden, M.A. El-Sayed, R.A. Hughes, J.S. Preston and P. Mascher, Plasmon Field Effects on the Nonradiative Relaxation of Hot Electrons in an Electronically Quantized System: CdTe-Au Core-Shell Nanowires, Nano Letters 8, 2410-2418 (2008).

S. Neretina, R.A. Hughes, G.A. Devenyi, N.V. Sochinskii, J.S. Preston and P. Mascher, The Role of Substrate Surface Alteration in the Fabrication of Vertically Aligned CdTe Nanowires, Nanotechnology 19,  185601/1- 185601/8 (2008).

A.Weck, T.H.R. Crawford, D.S. Wilkinson, H.K. Haugen and J.S. Preston, Laser drilling of high aspect ratio holes in copper with femtosecond, picosecond and nanosecond pulses, Applied Physics A- Materials Science and Processing 90, 537-543  (2008).

S. Neretina, R.A. Hughes, J.F.  Britten, N. V Sochinskii,  J. S Preston,. P Mascher, Vertically aligned wurtzite CdTe nanowires derived from a catalytically driven growth mode. Nanotechnology, 18 #275301 (2007). 

Tiedje, H.K. Haugen and J.S. Preston, Measurement of nonlinear absorption coefficients in GaAs, InP and Si by an optical pump THz probe technique. Optics Comm., 274, 187-97 (2007).

A. Weck, T.H.R. Crawford, D.S. Wilkinson, H.K. Haugen and J.S. Preston, Ripple formation during deep hole drilling in copper with ultrashort laser pulses, Applied Physics A 89 1001-1003 (2007).

M. Couillard, A. Borowiec, H.K. Haugen, J.S. Preston, E.M. Griswold, G.A. Botton, Subsurface modifications in indium phosphide induced by single and multiple femtosecond laser pulses J. of App. Phys.,101, 33519-1-8 (2007).

Weck, T.H.R. Crawford, A. Borowiec,; D.S. Wilkinson, and J.S. Preston, Femtosecond laser-based fabrication of a new model material to study fracture Appl.Phys. A86,  55-61 (2007).

S. Neretina, Y.Zhang, R.A. Hughes, J. Britten, N.V. Sochinskii, J.S. Preston and P. Mascher. The role of lattice mismatch in the deposition of CdTe thin films. J. Elect. Mat. 35 1224-1230, (2006). 

Qiangyong Li, J. Preston, D. Venus, Chemically ordered fcc (111) Mn-(FexNi1-x) alloy ultrathin films.  Surface Science 588, 49-60. (2005).

John Nam, Robert A.  Hughes, Antoni Dabkowski, John S. Preston,  Laser scanning microscopy studies on detwinned YBa2Cu3O7-δ thin films.  IEEE Trans. Applied Superconductivity 15, 3082-3085. (2005).

Y. Luo, R.A. Hughes, J.S. Preston, G.A. Botton, G. A.  Microstructure and current transport properties of single-layer YBa2Cu3O7-x and multiple-layer YBa2Cu3O7-x/(Ba0.05Sr0.95)TiO3 superconductor films. Thin Solid Films 488, 217-222. (2005).

J.S. Preston and A. Kristofferson, Ultrafast optical studies of cuprate superconductors.  Physics in Canada, 60(5) (2004).

Anna Kristofferson, H. Tiedje, Robert A. Hughes, Harold K. Haugen, Thomas Timusk and John S. Preston.  Terahertz pump-probe spectroscopy in YBCO films, Proceedings of SPIE 750-758 (2004).

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Patents

Voltage Controlled Superconducting Microwave Switch, Canadian Patent #2118141, US patent pending.