Research summary
Smart materials respond dynamically to their environments and have a range of applications, from clean energy to robotics to medicine. As Canada Research Chair in Bioinspired Smart Materials, Dr. Gitanjali Kolhatkar aims to develop energy-efficient smart materials that can mimic the human brain’s ability to learn and recognize patterns.
She and her research team are using two materials: hafnium oxide (HfOx) and aluminum scandium nitride alloy (Al1-xScxN). They are focusing on these materials because a resistance change can be induced in them to mimic how human brain synapses behave when performing cognitive tasks. Kolhatkar and her team are combining material synthesis and advanced characterization to understand the interplay between device performance and material microstructure. This knowledge will provide a way to tune smart material properties to produce optimized artificial synapses, smart tactile sensors, and energy-harvesting devices.