The goal of this program is to significantly enhance our understanding of point defects in wide gap binary semiconductors focusing on group III-V and II-VI. Throughout the program, we will, from time to time, update the tentative list of relevant defects (and material) under study to ensure timely and impact of this work as the world's interests shifted. The knowledge learning from this program will provide the foundation for increased control of impurities and defect incorporation. This is essential for improved performance of electronic and optoelectronic devices. It will also guide the experimentalists to focus only on reducing the active defects as well as explain the available experimental data. Since the topic of p-type dopants in ZnO is of great interest world-wide, we will also pay large attentions in investigating defects in ZnO. We believe that our shoulder-to-shoulder collaboration with leading experimentalists in the field will highly aid in the chance of success p-type ZnO fabrications.
Examples of issues to be addressed:
" Revise the calculations of native defects in GaAs (and/or GaP): interstitial Ga (Gai), interstitial As (Asi) or P (Pi), vacancy Ga (VGa), vacancy As (VAs) or P (VP) and anti-sites (GaAs, AsGa or GaP, PGa).
" Simple point defects and defect complexes in III-V and diluted III-V, for instant: N-H complexes in GaAs:N
" Frenkel-pair complexes in III-V and II-VI, for instant: Gai-VGa pair in GaN or Zni-VZn pair in ZnO
" Candidates for p-type dopants and potential impurities in ZnO, for instance, N-Al complexes, lithium and etc.
" Role of native defects versus impurities in obtaining semi-insulating material, for instant: role of Li for semi-insulating ZnO.
" H inclusion in II-VI and III-V materials.
" Simulating fingerprints of above defects and impurities, depending on experimental techniques used on each specific defects.
We plan to publish our results to the research community regularly in widely accepted journals such as Physical Review B, Journal of Applied Physics, or Physical Status Solidi. If there is a spectacular finding, we will report our results in Physical Review Letters or Applied Physics Letters.
