Research Interests

Triboelectricity, the charge transferred between materials when they rub or contact, is still not well-understood in insulators despite having been known for millenia. A wide range of science and every day life is affected by triboelectricity, from planetary formation to industrial explosions, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and even static shocks you feel from door handles after walking across carpet. Triboelectricity is also exploited in a variety of applications including laser printers and energy harvesting devices.

I am interested in understanding the fundamental driving forces of triboelectricity. Research on triboelectricity requires understanding the mechanics of contact and sliding ("tribo"), as well as the details of how the electronic structure changes to drive charge transfer ("electricity"). To this end, I develop theoretical and computational models in addition to experiments using conductive atomic force microscopy and other related techniques. This work considers the flexoelectric effect, the polarization of materials under a strain gradient, which has recently been recognized as being intimately connected with triboelectricity.

Education

Northwestern University - Evanston, IL
Materials Science and Engineering
September 2019 - present

University of Minnesota - Minneapolis, MN
B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering
September 2015 - May 2019

Publications

1. Band Bending and Ratcheting Explain Triboelectricity in a Flexoelectric Contact Diode
   K. P. Olson, C. A. Mizzi, and L. D. Marks
   Nano Lett. 22 (2022) 3914-3921
   
   
2. Asperity Shape in Flexoelectric/Triboelectric Contacts
   K. P. Olson and L. D. Marks
   Nano Energy (2023) doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2023.109036