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Nanostructures for Semiconductor Devices

Objectif

The NANSDEV Action aimed to study semiconductor structures in which the confinement of electrons in more than one direction is an important determinant of their electronic and optical properties, and which take advantage of the very low scattering in very high mobility two-dimensional electron gas layers. Revealing and exploring phenomena which might be exploitable in future semiconductor devices was the main focus of the work. Fabrication technologies for structures with critical dimensions down to 10 nm were to be developed and the process-related issues studied.
Semiconductor structures and devices with critical feature sizes down to 10 nm (so called nanostructures) were studied. Knowledge of the properties of nanostructures is important both to understand the behaviour of conventional electronic devices at the limits of miniaturization and to invent new classes of devices. Technologies suited to the fabrication of nanostructures, including electron beam nanolithography, dry etching and molecular beam epitaxial growth, were optimized for this purpose.

Research has been carried out in the following areas:
quantum transport (progess has been made in understanding the properties of electronic transport in ultrasmall quantum dots defined by 2 or more point contacts);
periodic structures (understanding of the static and dynamic properties of electrons confined in lateral superlattice potentials of various geometry and strength has vastly increased);
overgrowth (this topic was expanded to include not only the overgrowth of laterally patterned quantum well material to reduce the effects of the air semiconductor interface, but also the direct growth of nanostructures using the inherent mechanisms of the growth process itself);
optics (luminescence studies of overgrown quantum dots showed not only the increase in luminescence efficiency but also significant red shifting and broadening of the emission peak and to further explore the role of defects in determining luminescence efficiency, the transition between wire- behaviour and dot- behaviour was studied and showed that the luminescence from a wire increases as the wire is shortened);
growth (having shown that gallium arsenic can be growth with sufficiently high purity and quality to obtain peak mobilities of 4E5 cm{2}/Vs rather than the more common arsenic(4) this material was incorporated into 2-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) layers and with further attention to sources of impurities in the growth machine, it has been shown that full wafers of 2DEG material having mobili ty approximately 3E6 cm{2}/Vs can be consistently grown).
POTENTIAL
The miniaturisation of conventional electronic devices could be inhibited for a variety of reasons, including fundamental limitations to device operation and difficulties in fabrication. At the same time, the new physics revealed in ultra-small semiconductor structures may be exploitable. The outcome of this Action is expected to improve understanding of these limiting mechanisms and the prospects for overcoming them, and help to improve the likelihood of exploiting new phenomena in useful devices.

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UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW
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Adresse
Oakfield Avenue, Rankine Building
G12 8LT GLASGOW
Royaume-Uni

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Dernière mise à jour: 19 Août 1994

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Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/1672/fr

European Union, 2024