Semiconductor Materials & Devices Research Group
The SMD Group has a long-standing reputation for international class work on semiconductor materials and electronic and opto-electronic devices. The presence of the EPSRC National Centre (NC) for III-V Technologies within the Department for the past 26 years has ensured a critical mass presence which has underpinned most of the Group´s very extensive work. The NC´s role is to supply a wide range of well-characterised next-generation semiconductor epitaxial material and novel electronic devices to the UK academic community through EPSRC´s grant awarding structure. The equipment and cleanroom infrastructure required to achieve this is very extensive and the SMD group, together with the Centre, forms the leading academic presence in III-V semiconductor work in the UK. A new 540 m2 cleanroom suite is under construction, which will greatly enhance the quality of our laboratory space and enable future expansion, particularly in knowledge transfer activities, hitherto not possible with the current accommodation.
The Group also houses the EPSRC North-Eastern Universities Field Emission Gun Transmission Electron Microscope (FEGTEM) Facility providing state-of-the-art, atomic scale structural and compositional materials characterisation for both in-house and external users. State-of-the-art nanofabrication methods are provided by Electron Beam Lithography and Focused Ion Beam facilities. The group enjoys strong links with the Departments of Physics and of Engineering Materials at Sheffield, as well as a large number of academic and industrial collaborators.