Ternary metal nitrides – exploring fundamental optical and electronic properties towards ferroelectric functional structures

The project focusses on (Al,Ga,In)(Sc,Y,La)N alloys in an as-large-as-possible composition range exploring the static as well as dynamic optical, phonon, and electronic structure properties of the entire material system by (i) spectroscopic ellipsometry and other spectroscopic methods as well as by ultrafast techniques for studying the dynamics of the non-equilibrium electronic and vibrational structure like fs-time resolved spectroscopic pump-probe spectroscopic ellipsometry, (ii) quantum-chemical calculations applying cutting edge first-principle methods in particular for high-quality dielectric functions of the material system, (iii) growth optimization of thin films improving structural, electronic, optical properties towards: (iv) application in an electro-optical switch based on a ferroelectric nitride / dielectric waveguide heterostructure for future integrated optoelectronic information processing applications.

Principal Investigators:

Dr. Wichard Johann Daniel Beenken