Ríos Ocampo Awarded NSF CAREER to Advance New Class of Materials for Optoelectronics

The National Science Foundation has named Carlos A. Ríos Ocampo, an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics (IREAP), a recipient of the Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award. His research will investigate a new class of optical materials for energy efficient, compact, and novel optoelectronics devices.

“I am excited to use this award to continue forging the field of phase change materials for photonics and optoelectronics,” he said.

More specifically, his project will advance the understanding of phase change materials, which are named after their ability to switch between two different stable states, a property that determines how these materials slow and absorb light without using power to maintain either state. This comes as modern technologies rely on controlling light on a chip for sensing, communications, and computing.

However, current knowledge of the internal structure of phase change materials’ switching properties has slowed their applications, making these devices unpredictable as it remains unclear how this affects their performance. A team led by Ríos-Ocampo will look into new compositions that can control the material’s internal structure, and will develop automated measurement platforms that rapidly characterize their response as a function of temperature and heating time.

The project also explores new phenomena arising from the properties of phase change materials in photonic structures and devices, as well as their interactions with other quantum materials, which will set the foundation to make these materials reliable for future photonic technologies.

“I am positive the next five years will result in a better understanding of this family of materials, the expansion of the composition library, and more novel, exciting applications and physical phenomena. I am also looking forward to using this opportunity, on the educational side, to implement a support program for our MSE transfer students,” said Ríos-Ocampo.

Published July 20, 2026