Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The general area of research relates to materials science studies using ion beam excitation techniques for both structural and compositional analyses, focusing particularly on surface and interface properties as functions of growth/fabrication parameters.  The primary projects are:  (i)  studies of high-k dielectric materials that are being considered for future microelectronic applications, specifically silicate materials incorporating Gd, Hf, ...;  (ii) the development of novel absolute surface analytical techniques using charged particle beams, capable of both high depth resolution and monolayer sensitivity.  The latter objective involves fundamental studies to examine/measure the interaction probabilities as charged particles penetrate into condensed media:  e.g. their slowing down rate, scattering probabilities, nuclear reaction rates, X-ray emission probabilities, charge state probabilities, ...  These studies are important to several areas of science (physics, chemistry, earth sciences, electrical engineering, etc.) that frequently require quantitative measurements of compositional parameters for technologically and environmentally important materials.