The Surface Science Lab Heteroepitaxy Group's research effort is focused on the heteroepitaxial growth and characterization of thin film and nanoscale structures on Group IV compounds, including Si, Si1-xGex, and SiC. Commonly used in modern IC device technology, these materials are of interest due to their unique electronic and structural properties. In most cases, lattice mismatch phenomena between dissimilar materials are exploited to generate the formation of these nanoscale structures. An array of characterization tools are used to quantify results, including STM, AFM, AES, XRD, EXAFS, Raman Spectroscopy, and PEEM. Current research projects include the formation of ErSi₂ and DySi₂ nanowires on Si (100), Quantum Dot formation on SiC 6H, the growth of thermodynamically stable Ti(Si_1-yGe_y)₂ films on strained Si_1-xGe_x, and the coalescence and shape transitioning effects of TiSi₂ islands on Si(111). Our group is focused on these projects with the future goal of fabricating capacitively-coupled quantum dot structures and quantum dot-nanowire arrays on Group IV substrates.

Current Research Projects

Title		Project Members	Group
Conducting Atomic Force Microscopy of Nanoscale Islands		Joseph Tedesco Chethan Pandarinath Brian Rodriguez John Waldrep	Heteroepitaxy
Real-Time UV-FEL Photo-Electron Emission Microscopy of Silicide Nanostructure Coarsening Dynamics on Silicon Surfaces		Matthew C. Zeman	Heteroepitaxy
High-Pressure Phase Transformations in Silicon, Germanium, and Silicon Nitride		Jennifer Huening	Heteroepitaxy
Growth and Decay of DySi2 nanowires on Si(001)		Anderson Sunda-Meya Matthew C. Zeman	Heteroepitaxy
Real-time PEEM observation of the growth dynamics of Ge islands on Si		Anderson Sunda-Meya Marcel Himmerlich Woochul Yang	Heteroepitaxy
Single electron tunneling through titanium silicide nanoislands on Si(111)		Joseph Tedesco	Heteroepitaxy
Thermodynamically Stable Ti(Si1-yGey)2 Thin Films on Si1-xGex		James Burnette	Heteroepitaxy
Titanium Interlayer Mediated Epitaxy of CoSi2 on Si1-xGex		James Burnette	Heteroepitaxy
Self-organized nanoscale Ge dots and dashes on SiGe/Si superlattices		Anderson Sunda-Meya	Heteroepitaxy
Electrical characterization of silicide nanowires and islands on Si(100) and Si(111) using UHV STM and STS		Joseph Tedesco	Heteroepitaxy