About Us > Faculty & Staff > Faculty > Natalya Tokranova

Instructor

Degrees:

• Ph.D. (Physics of Semiconductor and Dielectric) 1996, Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia
• M.S. (Optoelectronic Devices) 1987, Leningrad Electrical Engineering Institute, Russia

Research areas:

• MEMS
• NEMS
• optoelectronics
• porous silicon
• pressure sensors
• solar cells

Description of research:

Dr. Tokranova's research interests focus on Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and nanosystems. Her current research projects are multidisciplinary and lie at the intersection of semiconductor materials and device physics, materials sciences, optics and biochemistry. They encompass two major research directions.

The first is the design and fabrication of MEMS sensor and actuators, including pressure sensors and optical gratings, for various kinds of applications.

The second research focus is on nanoscale silicon structures, which are produced using electrochemical etching. Silicon with pore sizes from 1nm can be used for a wide variety of applications including photonics (e.g., photonic bandgap structures), photovoltaics (e.g., hybrid solar cells).

Professional Background:

• Research Scientist, Russian Academy of Sciences, Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia (1987-2000)
• College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, University at Albany (SUNY at Albany) (2000-present)

Papers published:

I. Levitsky, W. Euler, N. Tokranova, B. Xu, J. Castracane
Hybrid solar cell based on porous Si and Copper Phthalocyanine derivatives
to be published in the December, 2004 issue of Applied Physics Letters

N. Tokranova, B. Xu, J. Castracane
Fabrication of Flexible One-Dimensional Porous Silicon Photonic Band-Gap Structures
MRS proceedings, Vol.797(2004), pp.W1.3.1-W1.3.6

P. Chen, B. Xu, N. Tokranova, X. Feng, J. Castracane, K.D. Gillis
Amperometric Detection of Quantal Catecholamine Secretion from Individual Cells on Micromachined Silicon Chips
Anal. Chem., 2003; 75(3); pp.518-524

M. Almasri, B. Altemus, A. Gracias, L. Clow, N. Tokranova, J. Castracane, B. Xu
Reliability study of wafer bonding for micro-electro-mechanical systems
vol.5343, no.1, 2003. p. 79-86.

N. Tokranova, X. Feng, S. Olson, T. Tang, B. Xu, J. Castracane
Fabrication of MEMS devices with macroporous silicon membrane embedded with modulated 3D structures for optimal cell sorting
MRS proceedings, Vol.572 (2003), pp.AA14.6.1-AA14.6.6

X. Feng, N. Tokranova, B. Xu, P. Chen, K.D. Gillis, J. Castracane
Micro-array development for cell secretion studies
Proceedings of SPIE, Vol.4982 (2003), pp.37-44

K. Gillis, P. Chen, B. Xu, N. Tokranova, X. Feng, J. Castracane
Novel microfabricated device to measure hormone/neurotransmitter release with millisecond temporal resolution
Proceedings of SPIE, Vol.4626 (2002), pp.378-382

B. Xu; N. Tokranova, J. Castracane, D. Yan
Cantilever microscanners for free-space optical interconnects
Proceedings of the SPIE, vol.4652, 2002. p. 225-32.

P. Chen; B. Xu; N. Tokranova, X. Feng
A novel microfabricated device measures a large fraction of hormone release from individual-cells with high time resolution
Proceedings of 2nd Annual International IEEE-EMBS: IEEE, 2002. p. 481-484.

E.G. Guk, A.G. Tkachenko, N.A. Tokranova, L.S. Granitsyna, E.V. Astrova, B.G. Podlaskin, A.V. Nashchekin; I.L Shul'pina; S.V. Rutkovski
Silicon structures with dielectric insulation obtained by vertical anisotropic etching
Technical Physics Letters, 2001, Vol. 27 (5), pp. 381-383.

Podlaskin, B.G.; Vasil'ev, A.V.; Guk, E.G.; Tokranova, N.A.
Construction of a synthetic aperture for Multiskan photodetectors
Technical Physics, Vol.45 (10), 2000, p. 1339-1345