Design of novel polymer-metal interfaces using first principles-informed artificial intelligence techniques

ORAL

Abstract

There is a growing interest in studying characteristics of polymer-metal interfaces, for the development of better dielectric polymers. Polymers have many advantages as dielectric materials due to their easy processing and flexibility but are limited by dielectric breakdown under high electric field that is driven via injection of hot carriers. In this work, we investigate how Aluminum and Boron-Nitride coating affects the charge injection barrier and hot carrier dynamics in various polymer systems. We develop a density functional theory-based method and design efficient ReaxFF force field using machine learning methods for simulating realistic interfaces. We illustrate this method by depositing bilayer Aluminum on various polymer slabs, such as Polycarbonate (PC), Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), Polypropylene (PP), and Polyethylene (PE) to investigate their dielectric performance. We further employ machine learning for studying interfacial structure dielectric breakdown field relationship to enhance design of efficient interfaces.

*This work was supported by the ONR through a Multi-University Research Initiative (MURI) under grant number (N00014-17-1-2656). The simulations were performed at the ALCF under the DOE INCITE and Aurora Early Science programs and at the CARC, USC.

Presenters

  • RURU MA

    • Univ of Southern California

Authors

  • RURU MA

    • Univ of Southern California
  • Thomas Linker

    • Collaboratory for Advanced Computing and Simulations, University of Southern California
    • Univ of Southern California
  • Liqiu Yang

    • Univ of Southern California
  • Ankit Mishra

    • Univ of Southern California
  • Deepak Kamal

    • Georgia Tech
    • Georgia Institute of Technology
    • Georgia Inst of Tech
  • Yifei Wang

    • University of Connecticut
  • Ken-ichi Nomura

    • Collaboratory for Advanced Computing and Simulations, University of Southern California
    • Univ of Southern California
  • Fuyuki Shimojo

    • Department of Physics, Kumamoto University
    • Kumamoto University
    • Collaboratory for Advanced Computing and Simulations, University of Southern California
    • Dept. of Phys., Kumamoto Univ.
  • Aiichiro Nakano

    • Collaboratory for Advanced Computing and Simulations, University of Southern California
    • Univ of Southern California
  • Rajiv K Kalia

    • Collaboratory for Advanced Computing and Simulations, University of Southern California
    • Univ of Southern California
  • Priya Vashishta

    • Collaboratory for Advanced Computing and Simulations, University of Southern California
    • Univ of Southern California