Molecular Beam Epitaxy Lab

The City College of New York

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Overview


Several materials projects are being pursued in our molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) laboratory at The City College of New York-CUNY. They include:

  • Growth and characterization of novel wide bandgap II-VI semiconductor alloys
  • Intersubband devices for mid-IR sensors from ZnCdMgSe-based compounds
  • II-VI nanostructures for visible light emitters
  • Growth and physics of II-VI-based sub-monolayer type-II quantum dots
  • MBE growth of ZnO and related compounds
  • Bi2Se3 and Bi2Te3 layers and structures for topological insulators

Our facilities consist of a three growth chamber Riber MBE system with interconnecting UHV modules. One chamber is for the growth of AS-based III-V semiconductors, another for growth of Se- and Te- based wide bandgap II-VI semiconductors, and the third is for the MBE growth of the topological insulator materials. We also have a fourth stand alone DCA MBE chamber for the growth of ZnO and related compounds.

 

 

Characterization techniques in our laboratory include high resolution X-ray diffraction, temperature dependent photoluminescence spectroscopy, Hall effect measurement, modulated electroreflectance spectrsocopy, Nomarski interference microscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy, and Capacitance-Voltage (C-V) and Current-Voltage (I-V) probes. 

We have many collaborators within CUNY and from other institutions in the US and abroad, including Lia Krusin, Swapan Gayen, Daniel Akins, John Lombardi and Carlos Meriles from The City College of New York, Igor Kuskovsky from Queens College of CUNY, Claire Gmachl from Princeton University, Jennifer Hastie from Strathclyde University in Glasgow, and Cevdet Noyan from Columbia University.  Our funding comes primarily from the National Science Foundation and from the Department of Energy. We are participants in Princeton’s NSF ERC MIRTHE, City College’s NSF CREST CENSES and Columbia University’s MIRT on Van der Waals materials.