Semiconductor nanostructures offer new applications in areas such as microLEDs, photonic crystals, metamaterials, mechanical resonators and specialty scanning probes.  These structures exhibit unique physical phenomena and pose new materials characterization challenges as they scale from the micro to nano regimes.  Our research primarily focuses on nanowires and nanofins grown from wide-bandgap semiconductors in the group III-nitride (GaN, AlN, InN) material system. We are interested in a range of research topics, from the applied to the fundamental, covering such areas as understanding epitaxial growth of III-nitride nanostructures and development of new measurement methods for quantifying nanoscale transport, doping, crystallographic, piezoelectric, and optoelectronic phenomena. Current device interests include nanowire lasers, microLEDs, photodetectors (primarily in the UV), UV and visible light emitters (i.e., for specialty illumination and quantum engineering applications), and photonic crystal or metamaterial control of light emission. We are also working on the design and fabrication of prototype nanostructure electronic devices such as FinFETs for applications in high power electronics. We welcome proposals aimed at new technological aspects of semiconductor nanostructure research and applications. Our characterization resources include triple-axis x-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, near-field scanning optical microscopy, cw and time-resolved photoluminescence, Raman spectroscopy, focused ion beam, device processing, and electrical measurements. Opportunities exist for collaborative work within NIST for more specialized characterization such as atom probe tomography, scanning tunneling microscopy, cathodoluminescence, nanoscale electrical and thermal measurements.  Our existing programs use plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy growth of group-III nitrides with a focus on nanostructures grown with selective epitaxy in both nanowire arrays and nanofin arrays.  A wide range of clean room processing equipment is available for prototyping of specialized nanostructures.

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