News & Events

Checkout the news and upcoming events from COSINC. Questions or submissions can be made to Director Aju Jugessur.

Upcoming Events

Thin-film Characterization for Next-Generation Technologies

Monday, August 10, 2026
9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
SEEC S228

The characterization of thin films is critical to advancing modern technologies such as semiconductors, photonics, energy devices, and quantum systems. Join COSINC for a full-day workshop exploring advanced thin-film characterization techniques, with a focus on X-ray-based methods and complementary analysis tools.

Participants will learn how to use COSINC's flagship characterization platforms, including the Rigaku SmartLab X-ray Diffractometer and Xenocs Xeuss SAXS/WAXS System, to investigate thin-film structure and properties through grazing-incidence techniques. Additional sessions will cover ellipsometry, optical 3D profilometry, data analysis, and practical research applications.

Attendance is limited to 16 participants.

Fees: $130 Academia & Non-Profit Organization, $230 Industry &Corporate

Workshop Agenda

9 a.m.–12 p.m. | Morning Session: Technical presentations and characterization talks

  • COSINC overview and National Quantum Nanofab (NQN) updates
  • Introduction to GIXRD (Grazing-Incidence X-Ray Diffraction) and XRR (X-Ray Reflectivity) using the Rigaku SmartLab system
  • Introduction to GISAXS (Grazing-Incidence Small-Angle X-Ray Scattering) and GIWAXS (Grazing-Incidence Wide-Angle X-Ray Scattering) using the Xenocs Xeuss system
  • Thin-film data processing and analysis workflows
  • Overview of additional COSINC thin-film characterization capabilities and instrumentation

12–1 p.m. | Lunch & Networking

1–5 p.m. | Afternoon Session: Live Fabrication Demonstration
Participants will rotate through live demonstrations and hands-on activities in small groups.

  • GIXRD and XRR Characterization, Rigaku SmartLab
  • GISAXS and GIWAXS Characterization, Xenocs Xeuss System
  • Surface and Optical Characterization, COSINC Cleanroom
  • Data Processing and Analysis

5–7:30 p.m. | Dinner & Networking

COSINC News

More News

Past Events

  • November 18 –COSINC and MIMIC Virtual Open House:Hands-on demonstrations on X-ray and Electron Microscopy
  • January 29–(click on link to access videos)
  • January 8–"SEM2 and EDS" with SEM2 office hours
  • April 22–“Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (Oxford Aztec-EDS),” Oxford Instruments, Presenter: Warren J. MorberlyChan, Ph.D., Microscopist
  • April 30– Cryo Dual Beams, Where Are We in 2020,” Thermo Fisher Scientific, Presenter: Rick Passey, Product and Application Scientist
  • May 4– "Basics of Plasma, Reactors and Etching," Plasma Therm, Presenter: David Lishan, Ph.D., Principal Scientist
  • May 14–“Learn how to write Nanometer,”Raith Nanofabrication (Electron Beam Lithography), Presenters: Andre Linden, Application Engineer; Marc Wijnands, Software and Application Engineer

Research & Publications

Research enabled by the COSINC facility is listed below. If you have an item to add to this list, please contact

  • To properly cite COSINC, add the following text to your acknowledgements:
    • xxx was performed at COSINC-(FAB or CHR), Ҵýƽ (RRID:SCR_018985)
  • Avila, V., Yoon, B., Ingraci Neto, R. R., Silva, R. S., Ghose, S., Raj, R., & Jesus, L. M. (2020). Reactive flash sintering of the complex oxide Li0.5La0.5TiO3 starting from an amorphous precursor powder. Scripta Materialia, 176, 78–82.
  • Cho, S. K., Su, L.-J., Mao, C., Wolenski, C. D., Flaig, T. W., & Park, W. (2019). Multifunctional nanoclusters of NaYF4:Yb3+,Er3+ upconversion nanoparticle and gold nanorod for simultaneous imaging and targeted chemotherapy of bladder cancer. Materials Science and Engineering: C, 97, 784–792.
  • Maharaj, F. D. R., & Marshak, M. P. (2020). Titanium-Anthraquinone Material as a New Design Approach for Electrodes in Aqueous Rechargeable Batteries. Energies, 13(7), 1722.
  • O’Toole, R. J., Buur, P. J., Gump, C. J., Musgrave, C. B., & Weimer, A. W. (2020). Solid‐state sintering of core‐shell ceramic powders fabricated by particle atomic layer deposition. Journal of the American Ceramic Society.
  • Tao, R., Shen, X., Hu, Y., Kang, K., Zheng, Y., Luo, S., Yang, S., Li, W., Lu, S., Jin, Y., Qiu, L., & Zhang, W. (2020). Phosphine‐Based Covalent Organic Framework for the Controlled Synthesis of Broad‐Scope Ultrafine Nanoparticles. Small, 16(8), 1906005.
  • Wu, H., Sarfati, R., Wang, D., & Schwartz, D. K. (2020). Electrostatic Barriers to Nanoparticle Accessibility of a Porous Matrix. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 142(10), 4696–4704.
  • Avila, V., & Raj, R. (2019). Flash sintering of ceramic films: The influence of surface to volume ratio. Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 102(6), 3063–3069.
  • Avila, V., & Raj, R. (2019). Reactive flash sintering of powders of four constituents into a single phase of a complex oxide in a few seconds below 700°C. Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 102(11), 6443–6448.
  • Cai, Y., & Schwartz, D. K. (2018). Single-nanoparticle tracking reveals mechanisms of membrane fouling. Journal of Membrane Science, 563, 888–895.
  • Cox, L. M., Blevins, A. K., Drisko, J. A., Qi, Y., Ding, Y., Fiedler‐Higgins, C. I., Long, R., Bowman, C. N., & Killgore, J. P. (2019). Tunable Mechanical Anisotropy, Crack Guiding, and Toughness Enhancement in Two‐Stage Reactive Polymer Networks. Advanced Engineering Materials, 21(8), 1900578.
  • Dischinger, S. M., Rosenblum, J., Noble, R. D., & Gin, D. L. (2019). Evaluation of a nanoporous lyotropic liquid crystal polymer membrane for the treatment of hydraulic fracturing produced water via cross-flow filtration. Journal of Membrane Science, 592, 117313.
  • Dunn, C. A., Shi, Z., Zhou, R., Gin, D. L., & Noble, R. D. (2019). (Cross-Linked Poly(Ionic Liquid)–Ionic Liquid–Zeolite) Mixed-Matrix Membranes for CO2/CH4 Gas Separations Based on Curable Ionic Liquid Prepolymers. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 58(11), 4704–4708.
  • Dwulet, G. E., Dischinger, S. M., McGrath, M. J., Basalla, A. J., Malecha, J. J., Noble, R. D., & Gin, D. L. (2019). Breathable, Polydopamine-Coated Nanoporous Membranes That Selectively Reject Nerve and Blister Agent Simulant Vapors. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 58(47), 21890–21893.
  • Grayson, M., Zohrabi, M., Bae, K., Zhu, J., Gopinath, J. T., & Park, W. (2019). Enhancement of third-order nonlinearity of thermally evaporated GeSbSe waveguides through annealing. Optics Express, 27(23), 33606.
  • Greydanus, B., Schwartz, D. K., & Medlin, J. W. (2019). Controlling Catalyst-Phase Selectivity in Complex Mixtures with Amphiphilic Janus Particles. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 12(2), 2338–2345.
  • Hu, Y., Dunlap, N., Wan, S., Lu, S., Huang, S., Sellinger, I., … Zhang, W. (2019). Crystalline Lithium Imidazolate Covalent Organic Frameworks with High Li-Ion Conductivity. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 141(18), 7518–7525.
  • Jacobson, D. R., Uyetake, L., & Perkins, T. T. (2019). Membrane-Protein Unfolding Intermediates Detected with Enhanced Precision Using a Zigzag Force Ramp. Biophysical Journal.
  • Kociolek, J. P., Williams, D. M., Stepanek, J., Liu, Q., Liu, Y., You, Q., Karthick, B., & Kulikovskiy, M. (2019). Rampant homoplasy and adaptive radiation in pennate diatoms. Plant Ecology and Evolution, 152(2), 131–141.
  • Mao, C., Min, K., Bae, K., Cho, S., Xu, T., Jeon, H., & Park, W. (2019). Enhanced Upconversion Luminescence by Two-Dimensional Photonic Crystal Structure. ACS Photonics, 6(8), 1882–1888.
  • McGrath, M. J., Hardy, S. H., Basalla, A. J., Dwulet, G. E., Manubay, B. C., Malecha, J. J., Shi, Z., Funke, H. H., Gin, D. L., & Noble, R. D. (2019). Polymerization of Counteranions in the Cationic Nanopores of a Cross-linked Lyotropic Liquid Crystal Network to Modify Ion Transport Properties. ACS Materials Letters, 1(4), 452–458.
  • O’Toole, R. J., Bartel, C. J., Kodas, M. U., Horrell, A. J., Ricote, S., Sullivan, N. P., … Weimer, A. W. (2018). Particle atomic layer deposition of alumina for sintering yttria‐stabilized cubic zirconia. Journal of the American Ceramic Society.
  • Stepanek, J. G., & Patrick Kociolek, J. (2019). Molecular phylogeny of the diatom generaAmphoraandHalamphora(Bacillariophyta) with a focus on morphological and ecological evolution. Journal of Phycology, 55(2), 442–456.
  • Wang, D., Wu, H., Liu, L., Chen, J., & Schwartz, D. K. (2019). Diffusive Escape of a Nanoparticle from a Porous Cavity. Physical Review Letters, 123(11).
  • Wang, M., Stafford, C. M., Cox, L. M., Blevins, A. K., Aghajani, M., Killgore, J. P., & Ding, Y. (2019). Controlled Growth of Polyamide Films atop Homogenous and Heterogeneous Hydrogels Using Gel–Liquid Interfacial Polymerization. Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics, 1900100.
  • Yoon, B., Avila, V., Raj, R., & Jesus, L. M. (2020). Reactive flash sintering of the entropy-stabilized oxide Mg0.2Ni0.2Co0.2Cu0.2Zn0.2O. Scripta Materialia, 181, 48–52.
  • Yoon, B., Yadav, D., Ghose, S., Sarin, P., & Raj, R. (2019). On the synchronicity of flash sintering and phase transformation. Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 102(6), 3110–3116.
  • Zhang, Y., Hu, Y., Zhao, J., Park, E., Jin, Y., Liu, Q., & Zhang, W. (2019). Covalent organic framework-supported Fe–TiO2 nanoparticles as ambient-light-active photocatalysts. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 7(27), 16364–16371.
  • Aghajani, M., Wang, M., Cox, L. M., Killgore, J. P., Greenberg, A. R., & Ding, Y. (2018). Influence of support-layer deformation on the intrinsic resistance of thin film composite membranes. Journal of Membrane Science, 567, 49–57.
  • Das, A., Mao, C., Cho, S., Kim, K., & Park, W. (2018). Over 1000-fold enhancement of upconversion luminescence using water-dispersible metal-insulator-metal nanostructures. Nature Communications, 9(1).
  • He, L., Mao, C., Brasino, M., Harguindey, A., Park, W., Goodwin, A. P., & Cha, J. N. (2018). TiO2-Capped Gold Nanorods for Plasmon-Enhanced Production of Reactive Oxygen Species and Photothermal Delivery of Chemotherapeutic Agents. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 10(33), 27965–27971.
  • Hou, D., Iddya, A., Chen, X., Wang, M., Zhang, W., Ding, Y., … Ren, Z. J. (2018). Nickel-Based Membrane Electrodes Enable High-Rate Electrochemical Ammonia Recovery. Environmental Science & Technology, 52(15), 8930–8938.
  • Mori, D. I., & Gin, D. L. (2018). Curable Ionic Liquid Prepolymer-Based Ion Gel Coating System for Toxic Industrial Chemical Hazard Mitigation on Porous Substrates. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 57(47), 16012–16020.
  • Shao, F., Dai, W., Zhang, Y., Zhang, W., Schlüter, A. D., & Zenobi, R. (2018). Chemical Mapping of Nanodefects within 2D Covalent Monolayers by Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy. ACS Nano, 12(5), 5021–5029.
  • Stepanek, Joshua & Kociolek, Patrick. (2018). Amphora and Halamphora from coastal and inland waters of the United States and Japan, with the description of 33 new species.
  • Tan, L.-L., Zhu, Y., Jin, Y., Zhang, W., & Yang, Y.-W. (2018). Highly CO2 selective pillar[n]arene-based supramolecular organic frameworks. Supramolecular Chemistry, 30(7), 648–654.
  • Uzcategui, A. C., Muralidharan, A., Ferguson, V. L., Bryant, S. J., & McLeod, R. R. (2018). Understanding and Improving Mechanical Properties in 3D printed Parts Using a Dual-Cure Acrylate-Based Resin for Stereolithography. Advanced Engineering Materials, 20(12), 1800876.
  • Wang, D.-G., Li, N., Hu, Y., Wan, S., Song, M., Yu, G., … Zhang, W. (2018). Highly Fluoro-Substituted Covalent Organic Framework and Its Application in Lithium–Sulfur Batteries. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 10(49), 42233–42240.
  • Yoon, B., Yadav, D., Ghose, S., & Raj, R. (2018). Reactive flash sintering: MgO and α‐Al 2 O 3 transform and sinter into single‐phase polycrystals of MgAl 2 O 4. Journal of the American Ceramic Society.
  • Zou, Z., Zhu, C., Li, Y., Lei, X., Zhang, W., & Xiao, J. (2018). Rehealable, fully recyclable, and malleable electronic skin enabled by dynamic covalent thermoset nanocomposite. Science Advances, 4(2), eaaq0508.
  • Aghajani, M., Maruf, S. H., Wang, M., Yoshimura, J., Pichorim, G., Greenberg, A., & Ding, Y. (2017). Relationship between permeation and deformation for porous membranes. Journal of Membrane Science, 526, 293–300.
  • Cai, Y., & Schwartz, D. K. (2017). Mapping the Functional Tortuosity and Spatiotemporal Heterogeneity of Porous Polymer Membranes with Super-Resolution Nanoparticle Tracking. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 9(49), 43258–43266.
  • Cox, L. M., Sun, X., Wang, C., Sowan, N., Killgore, J. P., Long, R., … Ding, Y. (2017). Light-Stimulated Permanent Shape Reconfiguration in Cross-Linked Polymer Microparticles. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 9(16), 14422–14428.
  • Du, Y., Yang, H., Wan, S., Jin, Y., & Zhang, W. (2017). A titanium-based porous coordination polymer as a catalyst for chemical fixation of CO2. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 5(19), 9163–9168.
  • He, L., Brasino, M., Mao, C., Cho, S., Park, W., Goodwin, A. P., & Cha, J. N. (2017). DNA-Assembled Core-Satellite Upconverting-Metal-Organic Framework Nanoparticle Superstructures for Efficient Photodynamic Therapy. Small, 13(24), 1700504.
  • Kang, G., Krogstad, M. R., Grayson, M., Kim, D.-G., Lee, H., Gopinath, J. T., & Park, W. (2017). High quality chalcogenide-silica hybrid wedge resonator. Optics Express, 25(13), 15581.
  • Lowe, Rex & Kociolek, Patrick & Qingmin, You & Wang, Quanxi & Stepanek, Joshua. (2017). Lowe R.L., Kociolek, J.P., You, Q & Wang. Q. 2017. Diversity of the diatom genus Humidophila in karst areas of Guizhou, China. Phytotaxa 305: 269-284. Phytotaxa. 305. 269-284.
  • Lu, D., Das, A., & Park, W. (2017). Direct modeling of near field thermal radiation in a metamaterial. Optics Express, 25(11), 12999.
  • Lu, S., Hu, Y., Wan, S., McCaffrey, R., Jin, Y., Gu, H., & Zhang, W. (2017). Synthesis of Ultrafine and Highly Dispersed Metal Nanoparticles Confined in a Thioether-Containing Covalent Organic Framework and Their Catalytic Applications. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 139(47), 17082–17088.
  • Rickman, M., Maruf, S., Kujundzic, E., Davis, R. H., Greenberg, A., Ding, Y., & Pellegrino, J. (2017). Fractionation and flux decline studies of surface-patterned nanofiltration membranes using NaCl-glycerol-BSA solutions. Journal of Membrane Science, 527, 102–110.
  • Singh, Z. V., Tan, L.-L., Cowan, M. G., Yang, Y.-W., Zhang, W., Gin, D. L., & Noble, R. D. (2017). Pillar[5]arene/Matrimid™ materials for high-performance methane purification membranes. Journal of Membrane Science, 539, 224–228.
  • Wang, M., Gorham, J. M., Killgore, J. P., Omidvar, M., Lin, H., DelRio, F. W., Cox, L. M., Zhang, Z., & Ding, Y. (2017). Formation of a Crack-Free, Hybrid Skin Layer with Tunable Surface Topography and Improved Gas Permeation Selectivity on Elastomers Using Gel–Liquid Infiltration Polymerization. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 9(33), 28100–28106.
  • Xiaoping Yang, Lih-Jen Su, Francisco G. La Rosa, Elizabeth Erin Smith, Isabel R. Schlaepfer, Suehyun K. Cho, Brian Kavanagh, Wounjhang Park, & Thomas W. Flaig. (2017). The Antineoplastic Activity of Photothermal Ablative Therapy with Targeted Gold Nanorods in an Orthotopic Urinary Bladder Cancer Model. Bladder Cancer, 3(3), 201–210.
  • Yang, H., Zhu, Y., Du, Y., Tan, D., Jin, Y., & Zhang, W. (2017). Aromatic-rich hydrocarbon porous networks through alkyne metathesis. Materials Chemistry Frontiers, 1(7), 1369–1372.
  • Zhu, C., Xi, C., Doro, W., Wang, T., Zhang, X., Jin, Y., & Zhang, W. (2017). Tuning the physical properties of malleable and recyclable polyimine thermosets: the effect of solvent and monomer concentration. RSC Adv., 7(76), 48303–48307.
  • Budd, David A., Making Geologic Sense of Pore-System Characterizations in Carbonate-Rich Mudrocks: Examples from the Niobrara Formation, Houston Geological Society, Applied Geoscience Conference Proceedings: Integrated Approaches to Unconventional Reservoir Assessment and Optimization, 2016:10pp.
  • LI, J., KOCIOLEK, J. P., & GAO, Y. (2016). Chaetoceros coloradensis sp. nov. (Bacillariophyta, Chaetocerotaceae), a new inland species from Little Gaynor Lake, Colorado, North America. Phytotaxa, 255(3), 199.
  • Ress, J. A., Thomas, E. W., & Kociolek, J. P. (2016). Newly describedGomphonemaandGomphospheniafrom Rocky Mountain Front Range streams, Colorado, USA, with additional discussion of rarely reported taxa. Diatom Research, 31(1), 51–62.
  • Stepanek, J. G., & Kociolek, J. P. (2016). Re-examination of Mereschkowsky’s genusTetramphora(Bacillariophyta) and its separation from Amphora. Diatom Research, 31(2), 123–148.
  • Stepanek, J. G., Fields, F. J., & Kociolek, J. P. (2016). A comparison of lipid content metrics using six species from the genus Halamphora (Bacillariophyta). Biofuels, 7(5), 521–528.
  • Thomas, E. W., Stepanek, J. G., & Kociolek, J. P. (2016). Historical and Current Perspectives on the Systematics of the “Enigmatic” Diatom Genus Rhoicosphenia (Bacillariophyta), with Single and Multi-Molecular Marker and Morphological Analyses and Discussion on the Monophyly of “Monoraphid” Diatoms. PLOS ONE, 11(4), e0152797.
  • Fields, F. J., & Kociolek, J. P. (2015). An evolutionary perspective on selecting high-lipid-content diatoms (Bacillariophyta). Journal of Applied Phycology, 27(6), 2209–2220.
  • Kociolek, J. P., & Williams, D. M. (2015). How to define a diatom genus? Notes on the creation and recognition of taxa, and a call for revisionary studies of diatoms. Acta Botanica Croatica, 74(2), 195–210.
  • Kociolek, J. P., Spaulding, S. A., & Lowe, R. L. (2015). Bacillariophyceae. In Freshwater Algae of North America (pp. 709–772).
  • Kociolek, J. P., Theriot, E. C., Williams, D. M., Julius, M., Stoermer, E. F., & Kingston, J. C. (2015). Centric and Araphid Diatoms. In Freshwater Algae of North America (pp. 653–708). Elsevier.
  • Kociolek, Patrick & Qingmin, You & Wang, Quanxi & Liu, Qi. (2015). Consideration of some interesting freshwater gomphonemoid diatoms from North America and China, and the description of Gomphosinica, gen. nov. Nova Hedwigia. 144. 175-198.
  • Kohler, T. J., KOPALOVÁ, K., VAN DE VIJVER, B., & PATRICK KOCIOLEK, J. (2015). The genus Luticola D.G.Mann (Bacillariophyta) from the McMurdo Sound Region, Antarctica, with the description of four new species. Phytotaxa, 208(2), 103.
  • STEPANEK, J. G., & KOCIOLEK, J. P. (2015). Three new species of the diatom genus Halamphora (Bacillariophyta) from the prairie pothole lakes region of North Dakota, USA. Phytotaxa, 197(1), 27.
  • Thomas, E. W., & Kociolek, J. P. (2015). Taxonomy of three new Rhoicosphenia (Bacillariophyta) species from California, USA. Phytotaxa, 204(1), 1.
  • Thomas, E. W., Kociolek, J. P., & Karthick, B. (2014). Four newRhoicospheniaspecies from fossil deposits in India and North America. Diatom Research, 30(1), 35–54.DOI