Low-dimensional materials for optoelectronic devices

Semiconductors lie at the heart of computers, renewable energy generation, displays, lighting, and imaging sensors, to name but a few. If we reduce the size of these materials to atomic dimensions this dramatically changes how they interact with other materials and how they react to external stimuli such as light, heat or electric and magnetic fields. By combining the electronic control and light emission and detection properties of semiconductors with the data handling and novel functionalities of spintronics, "spin-engineered" semiconductor devices would enable the development of higher efficiency optoelectronic devices for sustainable energy and lighting, as well as open pathways to develop low power computing architectures for mobile devices and the Internet of Things.This project will involve the fabrication and characterisation of electronic and optoelectronic devices using low-dimensional materials, such as graphene, 2D semiconductors and semiconductor nanowires. To achieve this I will develop novel device fabrication techniques and material growth processes to access new physics and develop nanomaterial-based (opto)electronic devices with higher performance or new functionalities unattainable using larger scale "bulk" materials.