The Oxide & Nitride group of the Surface Science Lab is broadly focused, with interests in semiconductor, piezoelectric and ferroelectric materials. Both oxide and nitride wide bandgap semiconductors are represented (ZnO and GaN) along with high-k oxide dielectric materials for both silicon and wide-bandgap technology. We have active members in the field of micro and nano contact printing using domain patterned ferroelectric materials as reconfigurable templates for charge transfer and a novel technique Piezoresponse Force Microscopy (PFM) which allows the piezoelectric response of materials to be measured.

Current Research Projects

Title		Project Members	Group
High-K dielectrics on Si		Charlie Fulton John Waldrep	Oxides & Nitrides
PEEM of Polarity Patterned Materials		Brian Rodriguez	Oxides & Nitrides
Photoemission study of GaN-dielectric interfaces		Charlie Fulton	Oxides & Nitrides
Metal Contacts for High-k Gate Dielectrics in Advanced Si Devices		Charlie Fulton	Oxides & Nitrides
Scanning Probe Investigation of Mechanisms of Fatigue in PZT		Thomas Blair	Oxides & Nitrides
Characterization of Band bending on Al-face and N-face Al(Ga)N by Photoemission techniques		Yingjie Tang	Oxides & Nitrides
Schottky contact and interface properties of TiN on wurtzite and cubic GaN		Yingjie Tang	Oxides & Nitrides
Nanoscale investigation of polarity-patterned materials by PFM, EFM and SKPM		Brian Rodriguez	Oxides & Nitrides
nanoscale scanning probe investigation of switching dynamics in ferroelectric crystals and thin films		Brian Rodriguez Thomas Blair John Waldrep	Oxides & Nitrides
nanoscale scanning probe investigation of step-by-step switching of ferroelectric capacitors		Brian Rodriguez	Oxides & Nitrides
selective deposition of charged molecules on domain patterned ferroelectrics		Brian Rodriguez Jacqueline Hanson	Oxides & Nitrides