Group Vision

Our research concentrates on integrating previously incompatible materials to create new functionality in electronic and optoelectronic components and systems. In semiconductor materials, understanding and accommodating differences in lattice constant, atom valence, and thermal expansion are key to producing new substrates and heterostructures. Our work has already had important commercial impact on the areas of strained Si for high-performance, low-power digital electronics and high-efficiency, low-weight solar cells for space applications. Furthermore, we have fabricated the first commercially promising lasers and visible light-emitters on Si, which will impact future electronic and optoelectronic systems. Finally, we are incorporating thin film battery materials into Si-based fabrication, ultimately leading to a truly integrated "system on a chip" with components for power supply and management, wireless communication, optical communication, and high-speed digital computation.

Current projects include: Selective defect nucleation in H+-implanted semiconductor layers for improved layer-transfer applications; fabrication of new substrates such as GOI, SSOI, SGOI, and SSOS through relaxed buffer bonding; growth and fabrication of high-mobility strained-SiGe MOSFETs for CMOS applications; controlling threading dislocation density (TDD) in SiGe graded buffers for integration of III-V devices on Si; growth of high-quality InGaAs graded buffers on GaAs for HEMT electronics and telecommunications applications; visible AlInGaP LEDs and lasers integrated on Si and GaAs; basic studies concerning the generation, propagation, and interaction of point, line, and planar defects in these heterostructures.

What's New in the Fitzgerald Group