Dr.Kozodoy-Faculty Candidate Seminar, p-type GaN for Electronic and Optoelectronic Device Applications

The development of gallium nitride and related materials has enabled a variety of high-performance devices including blue- and white-emitting LEDs, short wavelength laser diodes, and high-power high-frequency field effect transistors. New applications under development include a range of sensors, nanoscale electronic devices, solar cells, and optoelectronic devices operating in the UV and infrared spectral ranges. This seminar will address a variety of device applications and will focus on the issue of p-type doping in nitride materials. The performance of many GaN-based devices is presently limited by the various difficulties associated with Mg doping, particularly the deep nature of the Mg acceptor. This presentation will address the factors limiting conductivity in bulk Mg-doped GaN, and will examine heavy-doping effects that occur at the high Mg concentrations typically employed in device structures. Novel schemes to increase p-type conductivity in GaN-based devices will also be presented; these approaches exploit the strong polarization fields that can be obtained in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures.

Peter Kozodoy received his B.S. in Physics from Yale University in 1994, and his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1999. His graduate research focused on the development of GaN and related materials for device applications, with a particular emphasis on p-type doping. From 1996-2001, Dr. Kozodoy worked as a Member of Technical Staff at the Cree Lighting Company in Santa Barbara, developing blue and UV-emitting LEDs. From 2001 to 2004 he was a Member of Technical Staff at Agility Communications, working in the development of widely tunable InP-based laser transmitters. In 2004 he was awarded a Science and Diplomacy Fellowship from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and joined the US Department of State, where he is currently serving in the Office of the Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State. Dr. Kozodoy is the author or co-author of four patents and seventy technical papers.