Novel Oxide Materials For Semiconductor Optoelectronic Devices And Sensors

Solid State Electronics Laboratory
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Email: [email protected]

ABSTRACT: In the semiconductor device community, oxide has typically referred to one material: SiO2 (or another oxide for a gate dielectric in a FET). Today, there are a variety of efforts to incorporate unique oxide materials in semiconductor devices to improve materials integration, enhance device performance, or introduce new functionality to existing electronic and optoelectronic devices. Oxide materials can possess functionalities including ferroelectric, piezoelectric, pyroelectric, and electro-optic properties. In this seminar, two distinct projects will be presented that utilize oxide materials for semiconductor device applications. The first is integrating perovskite oxide BaTiO3 to GaAs optoelectronics to achieve multi-functional devices and monolithic optoelectronic integrated circuits. Integrating these materials may provide new and unique integrated sensing capabilities on GaAs. Materials integration issues and the structural and electronic properties of BaTiO3/MgO/GaAs heterostructures will be presented. The second project develops ZnO and associated alloys for use as the active region in semiconductor devices. ZnO is a wide-bandgap II-VI semiconductor that may have tremendous potential for offering optical sources and detectors in the visible and ultraviolet region in combination with MgZnO and CdZnO alloys. ZnO-based semiconductors have the potential to surpass GaN-based materials due to their strong excitonic binding energy (60meV for ZnO, 25meV for GaN), availability of native substrates, and improved manufacturability. Realizing efficient UV sources and detectors may provide a means for miniature optical spectroscopy systems useful in chemical and biological sensing. Also, ZnO is a well-established piezoelectric material with desirable properties for sensor applications. Growth and properties of ZnO-based materials will be presented and discussed with respect to application of optoelectronic devices.

BIO: Jamie Phillips received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1994, 1996, and 1998, respectively. After graduation, he held a postdoc position at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM and served as a research scientist at the Rockwell Science Center in Thousand Oaks, CA. In 2002, Dr. Phillips joined the EECS Department at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan as an assistant professor. His research contributions have primarily been in compound semiconductor materials growth, self-assembled quantum dots, infrared detectors, and novel optoelectronic devices. His current research interests include ZnO-based materials and ferroelectric perovskite oxides for optoelectronic and multi-functional device applications.