Ionization radiation effects on carrier transport properties

Project Title: Ionization radiation effects on carrier transport properties

Principle Investigator: Elena Flitsiyan

(Main) Dr. Flisiyan alongside Dr. Chernyak (left) and their shared graduate student, Jonathan Lee (middle) following the purchase of their shared-use cathodoluminescence electron microscope.

Project Description:
Professor Flitsiyan works in very close collaboration with an additional member of the Physics department (Professor Leonid Chernyak), and the pair oversee a recently installed Cathodoluminescence Electron Microscope with pulse durations as short as 30 picoseconds. Work in the Flitsiyan group is primarily dedicated to investigations of Impact of Ionization Radiation on Carrier Transport Properties in Wide Bandgap Semiconductors by high-energy electron beam interactions with condensed-phase electronic device infrastructures and the resultant performance
effects, with a current focus on ultrafast characterization of such effects at dynamic time-scales for many electron processes.

Semiconductor devices maintain major advantages in modern technologies including high sensitivity, high-temperature, and high-power applications. In particular, it is common for wide bandgap-based devices to be deployed in the radiation harsh environment of space. A subset of 13 semiconductor-based devices is utilized for their potential use in viewing the invisible parts of the light spectrum. Therefore, the behavior of the electronic transport properties of these materials is of practical interest.

Successful applicants interested in conducting summer projects with Dr. Flitsiyan will work closely with the shared graduate student responsible for the continued operation of our world-class microscope and will likely be tasked with device characterization by Cathodoluminescence spectroscopy complemented with time-resolved version for direct measurement of carrier radiative recombination lifetime.