Abstract: The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is the primary research and development organization for the United States Department of the Air Force. Our team is developing new materials and manufacturing approaches to enable the next generation of electronic and optoelectronic devices that are critical for national security. Technologies such as integrated photonics, photodetectors, optically activated switches, and electro-optic modulators demand materials with electrical and optical properties that can be precisely tuned. One promising strategy is to combine organic and inorganic components in hybrid material systems, where carefully engineered interfaces can yield properties that are not possible in either component alone.

In this presentation, I will highlight three material platforms under development in the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate at AFRL where these hybrid interfaces play a central role: transition metal dichalcogenides for optical scattering, MXenes for electromagnetic interference shielding, and organic metal halide perovskites for detecting and generating polarized light. In each case, advances in synthesis, processing, and nanoscale to microscale characterization of the organic/inorganic interfaces are key to achieving the desired performance.

Bio: Dr. Joshua Kennedy received his B.Sc. in Physics from the College of Charleston and his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Utah. Before joining the Air Force Research Laboratory in 2014, he worked at the University of Texas at Dallas and at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. He is now a Senior Research Physicist at AFRL, where he leads the Agile Electronic Materials and Processes Research Team in the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.