CAREER: Atomic scale understanding of the doping incorporation and transport properties in ultrawide band gap semiconductors

职业：从原子尺度理解超宽带隙半导体的掺杂掺入和输运特性

• 批准号: 2145091
• 负责人: Baishakhi Mazumder
• 金额: $ 64.25万
• 依托单位: SUNY at Buffalo
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-07-01 至 2027-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2145091&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Atomic; scale; understanding; doping

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Nontechnical Description: Improving power conversion efficiency in a wide range of applications including consumer appliances, all-electric and hybrid-electric vehicles, and extraction and conversion in cost-effective renewable energy sources can save energy, significantly reducing costs, benefiting both the economy and environment. The potential material system for revolutionizing power electronics components is ultra-wide bandgap semiconductors, a class of semiconductors with large bandgap energy. Enhancing their performance relies on critical understanding of mechanisms to efficiently generate and control charge carriers and how these carriers interact within the materials. This project reveals and describes “what really happens” at the scale of charge carriers and microstructures within these material systems, including the dopant-defect interaction and how these atomic scale features affect the electrical functionalities. This work is made possible by an innovative approach that integrates a three-dimensional atomic scale imaging tool, atom probe tomography with statistical and computational modeling on the atomic scale data, establishing a direct link with the electrical conductivity that would be difficult to identify and mitigate otherwise. The principal investigator strives to inspire students at undergraduate and graduate levels, especially women and underrepresented minorities, to pursue a career in materials science and engineering by exposing them to the exciting development of advanced materials to solve important societal problems. The principal investigator will also increase awareness of advanced material characterization to generate smart data for material design and development by organizing summer workshops and symposium. Coursework will emphasize multidisciplinary approaches to teach engineering concepts and connect them with real-world applications to solve challenges for the advancement of society.Technical description: This research project will provide a fundamental understanding of electrical transport properties in ultra-wide band gap semiconductors to advance high power electronics and clean energy technologies. Ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor technology is hindered by the lack of knowledge of the dopant incorporation on electrical functionalities and identification and detection of atomic scale features contributing to charge compensation. A novel framework will be developed to detect and quantify dopant solubility, dopant diffusion, impurities, vacancies, and defect complexes by leveraging atom probe tomography coupled with machine learning and statistical modeling on microscopy data. The overarching goal is to generate know-how on the impact of microstructures on electrical transport, beyond the limits of existing techniques. This research aspires to transform the doping engineering and electrical conductivity optimization by: i) developing novel methodologies that can characterize dopant incorporation and dopant-defect interaction that leads to charge compensation with unprecedented resolution and precision; ii) gaining new insight into how atomic to nanoscale structures and defects impacts the electrical transport; iii) validating existing theories on charge compensation and providing important inputs for further developing material structure-chemistry for power electronics and clean energy generation, and iv) acquiring new knowledge on material structure and chemistry to aid the principles and design criteria to achieve outstanding material performance in ultra-wide bandgap semiconductors and beyond. The closely integrated research and education components provide interdisciplinary training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students on advanced microscopy, machine learning modeling, and ultra-wide bandgap semiconductors.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该奖项的全部或部分资金根据《2021 年美国救援计划法案》（公法 117-2）提供。 非技术说明：提高包括消费电器、全电动和混合动力电动汽车在内的各种应用中的电力转换效率，以及具有成本效益的可再生能源的提取和转换，可以节省能源，显着降低成本，使经济和环境受益。彻底改变电力电子元件的潜在材料系统是超宽带隙半导体，这是一类具有大带隙能量的半导体。提高其性能依赖于对有效生成和控制电荷载流子的机制以及这些载流子如何在材料内相互作用的关键理解。该项目揭示并描述了这些材料系统中电荷载流子和微观结构尺度上的“真正发生的情况”，包括掺杂剂-缺陷相互作用以及这些原子尺度特征如何影响电功能。这项工作是通过一种创新方法实现的，该方法将三维原子尺度成像工具、原子探针断层扫描与原子尺度数据的统计和计算建模相结合，建立与电导率的直接联系，否则很难识别和减轻电导率。首席研究员致力于通过让本科生和研究生接触先进材料的令人兴奋的发展来解决重要的社会问题，从而激励本科生和研究生，特别是女性和代表性不足的少数族裔，从事材料科学和工程领域的职业。首席研究员还将通过组织夏季研讨会和研讨会，提高对先进材料表征的认识，以生成用于材料设计和开发的智能数据。课程将强调采用多学科方法来教授工程概念，并将其与现实世界的应用联系起来，以解决社会进步的挑战。技术描述：该研究项目将提供对超宽带隙半导体的电传输特性的基本了解，以推进高功率电子和清洁能源技术。由于缺乏对掺杂剂掺入电功能以及有助于电荷补偿的原子尺度特征的识别和检测的了解，超宽带隙半导体技术受到阻碍。将开发一种新颖的框架，通过利用原子探针断层扫描以及机器学习和显微镜数据统计模型来检测和量化掺杂剂溶解度、掺杂剂扩散、杂质、空位和缺陷复合物。 总体目标是超越现有技术的限制，产生有关微结构对电传输影响的专业知识。这项研究旨在通过以下方式改变掺杂工程和电导率优化：i）开发能够表征掺杂剂掺入和掺杂剂-缺陷相互作用的新方法，从而以前所未有的分辨率和精度实现电荷补偿； ii) 获得关于原子到纳米级结构和缺陷如何影响电传输的新见解； iii) 验证现有的电荷补偿理论，并为进一步开发电力电子和清洁能源发电的材料结构化学提供重要投入，以及 iv) 获取材料结构和化学方面的新知识，以帮助制定原理和设计标准，以在超宽带隙半导体及其他领域实现出色的材料性能。紧密结合的研究和教育部分为本科生和研究生提供了先进显微镜、机器学习建模和超宽带隙半导体方面的跨学科培训机会。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。