SANDiE Partner P09

University Nottingham, United Kingdom

The Nottingham Group research interests range from the development of new semiconductor materials to fundamental studies of quantum phenomena. The semiconductor transport group in Nottingham has been studying various aspects of low dimensional semiconductor devices for nearly 20 years. During this time they have published more than 600 papers in this area. Research activities are based on semiconductor materials and devices grown in-house and processed in a suite of clean rooms. The Semiconductor group’s expertise lies in Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) growth (Dr Mohamed Henini), magneto-transport, magneto-tunnelling and magneto-optics measurements (B<18T) at low temperatures (T>30mK) (Prof Laurence Eaves and Dr Amalia Patane), and in the theory of the quantum properties of such conductors (Prof T.M.Fromhold). The Group benefits from close interaction with members of the Nottingham Nanoscience Group (Prof P.H.Beton) with expertise in the growth of organic nanocrystals, scanning probe induced manipulation and molecular self-assembly.

The Group is internationally recognised for the invention and development of magneto-tunnelling spectroscopy (MTS) as a probe of novel quantum structures and for the design and study of novel devices [see for example Science 290, 124 (2000) and Nature 428, 726 (2004)]. Highlights of our research on nanostructures include mapping the ground and excited state wave functions of electrons confined in self-assembled quantum dots by using MTS. This work provided a new way of imaging the spatial form of the wave function of bound electrons in condensed matter systems. It attracted considerable interest from the scientific community and was reviewed in Editor's Choice, Science 11 February 2000 and in Physics World 13, 28, 2000.

In summary the strengths of the Nottingham group, and their contribution to the project, lie in crystal growth by MBE, the use of theory, transport measurements and magneto-optical spectroscopy to elucidate the fundamental physics involved in the operation of low dimensional structures and devices, resulting in improving design for the growth and fabrication of new devices, and in sub-nanometre precision molecular manipulation.

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last update: 28 February 2019, A. Weber