Presidential Young Investigators Award

该奖项是在国家科学基金会总统青年研究者奖（PYIA）计划下为Westmoreland博士提供研究支持。PYIA计划的目标是为美国最杰出和最有前途的年轻科学和工程教师提供支持。该奖项旨在提高美国学术机构的能力，以满足学术和工业研究和教学对高素质科学和工程人员的需求。Westmoreland博士的研究领域是化学反应的研究，从微电子器件的等离子体制造到燃烧和热解。他计划将分子束质谱（MBMS）与光谱学、气相色谱和GC/MS结合起来，绘制实验室反应器内的浓度图。这种组合允许对活性物质（自由基、单线态物质如二氢化硅和离子）和稳定物质进行定量测量。用等离子体增强化学气相沉积（PECVD）技术制备硅烷非晶硅薄膜。近期目标是描述现有的非晶硅的商业PECVD：氢、二氧化硅和硅-氮薄膜，以足够的精度进行工艺和产品质量控制，但在分子尺度上的理解也将在以后指导新的薄膜和应用。他在燃烧和热解方面的目标是建立和应用氧化和生长的详细化学机制，特别是芳烃的形成。他将研究三种碳氢化合物（丙烷、丙烯、丙烯和丙烯），以确定苯是否由三个碳自由基形成，苯是否通过四个碳自由基途径形成，以及是否也可能涉及分子反应或插入反应。

This award is to provide research support to Dr. Westmoreland under the National Science Foundation's Presidential Young Investigator Awards (PYIA) Program. The objectives of the PYIA Program are to provide support to the Nation's most outstanding and promising young science and engineering faculty. The awards are intended to improve the capability of U.S. academic institutions to respond to the demand for highly qualified science and engineering personnel for academic and industrial research and teaching. Dr. Westmoreland's field of research is the study of chemical reactions ranging from the plasma fabrication of microelectronic devices to combustion and pyrolysis. He plans to combine molecular-beam mass spectrometry (MBMS) with optical spectroscopy, gas chromatography, and GC/MS to map concentrations within laboratory reactors. This combination permits quantitative measurements both of reactive species (free radicals, singlet species like silicon dihydride, and ions) and of stable species. Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of amorphous silicon films from silane will be studied in an MBMS apparatus. A near-term goal is describing the existing commercial PECVD of amorphous silicon: hydrogen, silicon dioxide, and silicon-nitrogen films with sufficient accuracy for process and product-quality control, but understanding at a molecular scale will also be later directed toward new films and applications. His goals in combustion and pyrolysis are to establish and apply detailed chemical mechanisms of oxidation and growth, particularly the formation of aromatics. He will study three carbon hydrocarbons (propane, propene, propyne, and propadiene) to determine whether three carbon radicals form benzene, whether the benzene is formed via four carbon radical pathways, and whether molecular or insertion reactions might also be involved.