What is your thesis topic?
I am studying selective area growth (SAG) of advanced superconductor-semiconductor hybrid nanowires for quantum devices.
How is materials processing involved in your research?
My research focuses on the SAG of III-V semiconductors and in-situ deposition of superconductors to form superconductor-semiconductor heterostructures. To grow nanowires using the SAG technique, the substrate should be prefabricated with the nanowire patterns using an oxide mask. This process includes a series of material processing steps, including oxide deposition, electron-beam patterning, and dry/wet etching. The nanowire is then grown under ultra-high vacuum using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) at a selected thermodynamic condition followed by in-situ superconductor deposition. Further material processing is required to pattern and deposit metals and dielectrics to prepare contacts and gates for transport studies.
Provide an example of where the material, process, or properties you are studying might find an application.
Semiconductor nanowires have applications in diverse fields of electronics, renewable energy, and photonics. Engineering these hybrid nanowires as quantum point contacts and quantum dots allows us to make a device that gives quantized conductance. Furthermore, superconductor-semiconductor heterostructures have shown great potential to be host platforms for quantum computing.