Oxide and Chalcogenide MOCVD Centre

(Metalorganic Chemical Vapour Deposition)

Centre Overview: the Oxide and Chalcogenide MOCVD Centre is located in the new Centre for Integrative Semiconductor Materials Building on the Swansea Bay Campus. As an underpinning materials system, oxide and chalcogenide semiconductors can play a major part in key UK investment priorities by filling a critical gap in capability and address the EPSRC strategic priority for new “21st Century Products” where these semiconductor properties are captured in new smart products.

At the heart of the Centre is an EPSRC Strategic Equipment awarded AIXTRON Close Coupled Showerhead MOCVD tool (EP/T019085/1). This research tool will help to address the priority of “sustainable industries” where materials will be used more efficiently in the manufacturing process by exploiting smart nanostructured architectures and earth abundant materials.

The oxide and chalcogenide compound semiconductors have some unique properties relating to their characteristics as ionic non-centrosymmetric semiconductors with a phenomenal range of bandgaps. This leads to high absorption coefficients over a very wide range of photon energies, high piezoelectric coefficients and exciton binding energies. The project team will develop the protocols for II/VI materials, collaborate on new funding bids with external key users and to supply II/VI materials across the UK’s semiconductor research community.

Research areas / themes: Metalorganic chemical vapour deposition, chalcogenides and oxides, Electronic Devices & Subsystems, Materials Characterisation, Materials Synthesis & Growth, Optoelectronic Devices & Circuits.

Research aims: The Oxide and Chalcogenide MOCVD Centre will help the UK to unlock the potential of II-VI semiconductors and explore new oxides and chalcogenides in the exiting areas of III-VIs such as Ga2O3 and 2-D transition metal dichalcogenides such as MoS2 and WSe2. The UK has a golden opportunity to build on our strengths in compound semiconductor research that will drive innovation across a range of new opto-electronic and power electronic devices. The new MOCVD Centre will help satisfy the demand for a new generation of functional compound semiconductor materials to capture the unique properties of oxide and chalcogenide compound semiconductors, complementing III-V compounds and silicon, and opening new application areas in optoelectronics, energy and healthcare.