Kevin Coffey’s research interests include electronic transport and magnetism in nanoscale metals, primarily from a materials science perspective with a focus on processing and structural characterization. The classical resistivity size effect in nanoscale metals is a strong interest of Coffey’s, motivated by the importance of this phenomenon to semiconductor interconnects, where it is now responsible for the majority of the power consumption and signal propagation delay.   Current efforts focus on electronic and thermal transport in oriented single crystal metallic nanowires.  His other current research interests are diffusion of metallic species in reactor grades of graphite and structural characterization of laser solidified metallic powders for additive manufacturing.

Research interests:

• Thin film processing and characterization
• Electronic materials
• Nanoscale metals
• Solid state reactions
• Magnetic thin films
• Grain boundary diffusion