Materials science semiconductors

Computational chemistry is valuable in studying the properties of materials, i.e. in materials science. Semiconductors, superconductors, plastics, ceramics - all these have been investigated with the aid of computational chemistry. Such studies tend to involve a knowledge of solid-state physics and to be somewhat specialized. 

Electrical engineering materials science semiconductor technology semiconductor manufacturing electronics physics chemistry nanotechnology mathematics. 

Recent texts have assembled impressive information about the production, characterisation and properties of semiconductor devices, including integrated circuits, using not only silicon but also the various compound semiconductors such as GaAs which there is no room to detail here. The reader is referred to excellent treatments by Bachmann (1995), Jackson (1996) and particularly by Mahajan and Sree Harsha (1999). In particular, the considerable complexities of epitaxial growth techniques - a major parepisteme in modern materials science - are set out in Chapter 6 of Bachmann s book and in Chapter 6 of that by Mahajan and Sree Harsha. 

According to Gatos, the needs of solid-state electronics, not least in connection with various compound semiconductors, were a prime catalyst for the evolution of the techniques needed for a detailed study of surface structure, an evolution which gathered pace in the late 1950s and early 1960s. This analysis is confirmed by the fact that Gatos, who had become a semiconductor specialist in the materials science and engineering department at was invited in 1962 to edit a new journal to be... 

Oliver, M. R., Chemical-Mechanical Planarization of Semiconductor Materials, Berlin Springer Series in Material Science, 2004. 

Kohei Uosaki received his B.Eng. and M.Eng. degrees from Osaka University and his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from flinders University of South Australia. He vas a Research Chemist at Mitsubishi Petrochemical Co. Ltd. from 1971 to 1978 and a Research Officer at Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, Oxford University, U.K. bet veen 1978 and 1980 before joining Hokkaido University in 1980 as Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry. He vas promoted to Associate Professor in 1981 and Professor in 1990. He is also a Principal Investigator of International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA) Satellite, National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) since 2008. His scientific interests include photoelectrochemistry of semiconductor electrodes, surface electrochemistry of single crystalline metal electrodes, electrocatalysis, modification of solid surfaces by molecular layers, and non-linear optical spectroscopy at interfaces. 

The importance of materials science to U.S. competitiveness can hardly be overstated. Key materials science areas underlie virtually every facet of modem life. Semiconductors underpin our electronics industry. Optical fibers are essential for communications. Superconducting materials will probably affect many areas ceramics, composites, and thin films are having a big impact now in transportation, construction, manufacturing, and even in sports—tennis rackets are an example. 

Fig. 7. Deuterium concentration profiles in a GaInAs/InP Zn OMVPE structure after exposure to a rf deuterium plasma for 20 min. at different temperatures (rf power density = 0.08 W/cm2). The dashed line represents the active zinc concentration profile as deduced from a POLARON semiconductor profiler. Note that the deuterium concentration matches the zinc concentration at all investigated temperatures. J. Chevallier et al., Materials Science Forum, 38-41, 991 (1989). Trans. Tech. Publications Semicond. Sci. Technol. 4, 87 (1989). IOP Publishing Ltd.

Nano-structures comments on an example of extreme microstructure In a chapter entitled Materials in Extreme States , Cahn (2001) dedicated several comments to the extreme microstructures and summed up principles and technology of nano-structured materials. Historical remarks were cited starting from the early recognition that working at the nano-scale is truly different from traditional material science. The chemical behaviour and electronic structure change when dimensions are comparable to the length scale of electronic wave functions. Quantum effects do become important at this scale, as predicted by Lifshitz and Kosevich (1953). As for their nomenclature, notice that a piece of semiconductor which is very small in one, two- or three-dimensions, that is a confined structure, is called a quantum well, a quantum wire or a quantum dot, respectively. 

Silicon has been and will most probably continue to be the dominant material in semiconductor technology. Although the defect-free silicon single crystal is one of the best understood systems in materials science, its electrochemistry to many people is still a matter of alchemy. This view is partly a result of the interdisciplinary aspects of the topic Physics meets chemistry at the silicon-electrolyte interface. 

Due to its unique ability to directly image the local structure of a thin object with atomic resolution, HRTEM is an extremely powerful tool for materials research. Metals, ceramics, and semiconductors are some examples of prominent materials of interest. HRTEM imaging used to be a high-end research tool mostly used in academia, but has now become standard for a wide variety of applications from materials science research to defect analysis in industrial semiconductor fabrication lines. 

A large fraction of the material science research, and an important chapter of solid state physics are concerned with interfaces between solids, or between a solid and a two dimensional layer. Solid state electronics is based on metal-semiconductor and insulator-semiconductor junctions, but the recent developments bring the interface problem to an even bigger importance since band gap engineering is based on the stacking of quasi two dimensional semiconductor layers (quantum wells, one dimensional channels for charge transport). 

Biefeld RM (2002) The metal-organic chemical vapor deposition and properties of III-V antimony-based semiconductor materials. Materials Science Engineering R-Reports 36(4), 105-142... 

---