Suneel Kodambaka

About

Suneel Kodambaka is a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Virginia Tech. His research interests focus on the science underlying the synthesis and stability of advanced materials for aerospace, energy storage, optoelectronics, and other industries. He develops a detailed atomic-level understanding of the mass transport mechanisms, chemical reaction kinetics, and material thermodynamics that control the morphological, compositional, and structural evolution of materials. Professor Kodambaka holds a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, obtained in 2002. He also earned a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 1996 and a bachelor's degree in metallurgical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in 1995. His professional activities include reviewing proposals for various agencies, refereeing for prominent scientific journals, organizing symposia, and serving on editorial boards. He has received numerous awards, including the Alumni Achievement Award from Southern Illinois University, the Paul H. Holloway Young Investigator Award from AVS, and the Ross J. Martin Award for outstanding doctoral thesis from UIUC.

Research topics

• Chemistry
• Crystallography
• Nanotechnology
• Materials science
• Metallurgy
• Chemical engineering
• Chemical physics
• Physical chemistry
• Composite material
• Thermodynamics

Selected publications

• Growth of Highly Oriented (VNbMoTaW)S₂ Layers

  Nano Letters · 2023-12-26 · 11 citations

  articleSenior author

  Compositional tunability, an indispensable parameter for modifying the properties of materials, can open up new applications for van der Waals (vdW) layered materials such as transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs). To date, multielement alloy TMDC layers are obtained via exfoliation from bulk polycrystalline powders. Here, we demonstrate direct deposition of high-entropy alloy disulfide, (VNbMoTaW)S2, layers with controllable thicknesses on free-standing graphene membranes and on bare and hBN-…

  PublisherDOI

• hBN-Layer-Promoted Heteroepitaxy in Reactively Sputter-Deposited MoS_<i>x</i>≈2(0001)/Al₂O₃(0001) Thin Films: Implications for Nanoelectronics

  ACS Applied Nano Materials · 2023-02-08 · 7 citations

  articleSenior author

  We show that van der Waals (vdW)-bonded hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) promotes heteroepitaxial growth of semiconducting MoSx(0001) (x = 2.0 ± 0.1) thin films on Al2O3(0001) substrates. hBN layers are grown on Al2O3(0001) via pyrolytic cracking of borazine (∼6 × 104 L) at 1373 K and the MoSx layers are deposited in an ultrahigh-vacuum system via reactive direct-current magnetron sputtering of Mo in an Ar/H2S gas mixture at 1073 K on bare and hBN-covered Al2O3(0001). Using in situ low-energy elect…

  PublisherDOI

• Need for complementary techniques for reliable characterization of MoS2-like layers

  Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A Vacuum Surfaces and Films · 2023-06-28 · 6 citations

  articleSenior author

  The observation of characteristic A1g and E2g1 peaks, at around 408 and 382 cm−1, respectively, in Raman spectroscopy is considered the evidence of 2H-structured MoS2, probably the most extensively studied transition-metal dichalcogenide. Here, using a combination of x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and resonant Raman spectroscopy, we show that the detection of A1g and E2g1 modes in Raman spectra alone may not necessarily imply the presence of MoS2. A series of Mo–S films, ≈…

  PublisherDOI

• Perspective on descriptors of mechanical behaviour of cubic transition-metal carbides and nitrides

  Philosophical Magazine Letters · 2024-05-31 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access

  Cubic rocksalt structured transition-metal carbides, nitrides (TMC/Ns), and related alloys, are attractive for a wide variety of applications, notably as hard, wear-resistant materials. To-date, valence electron concentration (VEC) is used as a good indicator of stability and mechanical properties of these refractory compounds. In this perspective, we argue for the need of electronic descriptors beyond VEC to explain and predict the mechanical behaviour of the cubic TMC/Ns. As such, we point out…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Direct Observation of Structural Phase Transformations during Phosphorene Formation on Cu(111)

  ACS Nano · 2025-01-22 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  Blue phosphorene, a two-dimensional, hexagonal-structured, semiconducting phosphorus, has gained attention as it is considered easier to synthesize on metal surfaces than its allotrope, black phosphorene. Recent studies report different structures of phosphorene, for example, on Cu(111), but the underlying mechanisms of their formation are not known. Here, using a combination of in situ ultrahigh vacuum low-energy electron microscopy and in vacuo scanning tunneling microscopy, we determine the t…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Engineering the Morphology and Microstructure of Group III-V Compound Semiconducting Nanowires

  NSF · $195k · 2009–2012

• High-Temperature Surface Dynamics of Transition-Metal Oxides

  NSF · $290k · 2012–2015

• Kinetics of Thin Film Growth on van der Waals Surfaces

  NSF · $418k · 2022–2022

Frequent coauthors

• I. Petrov

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  72 shared

• Cristian V. Ciobanu

  Colorado School of Mines

  57 shared

• V. Petrova

  Institute of Biochemical Physics NM Emanuel

  53 shared

• Javier Bareño

  Argonne National Laboratory

  44 shared

• J. E. Greene

  Boston University

  34 shared

• Frances M. Ross

  IIT@MIT

  32 shared

• Vivek B. Shenoy

  University of Pennsylvania

  29 shared

• Vincent Gambin

  Northrop Grumman (United States)

  28 shared

Awards & honors

• AVS ambassador, 37th Brazilian Congress on Vacuum Applicatio…
• Alumni Achievement Award, Southern Illinois University at Ca…
• Paul H. Holloway Young Investigator Award, AVS International…
• Best Paper Award, IBM Materials Research Community (2008)
• Ross J. Martin Award, outstanding doctoral thesis, College o…

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