Research Interests
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Prof. Zides research interests focus primarily on the nanoscale engineering of novel semiconductor and composite electronic materials for energy conversion and (opto)electronic devices. More specifically, his work focuses on the epitaxial growth of semiconductors and metal/semiconductor nanocomposites by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). These nanocomposites consist of conventional III-V semiconductors (such as GaAs) with embedded nanoparticles of compound metals and semimetals (such as ErAs). The resulting material can have properties which are extremely different from the constituent materials. For example, the incorporation of metallic nanoparticles into III-V semiconductors can result in reduced carrier lifetimes, Fermi level pinning (resulting in substantial changes to resistivity), enhanced carrier recombination, increased absorption due to plasmon resonances, or a reduction in thermal conductivity due to phonon scattering. This ability to tailor the electronic, optical, and thermal properties of materials can improve the performance of a wide variety of devices and also enable the development of devices which would otherwise be infeasible to realize.
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Prof. Zide is particularly interested in problems related to energy conversion (specifically, thermoelectric and photovoltaic) and ultrafast optical devices, but his interests are wide and his research is extremely interdisciplinary. Because his research spans a range of fields, Prof. Zide is a strong supporter of collaborative research. He believes in the importance of a wide base of knowledge and a deep understanding of underlying physics in order to solve important problems.
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Office: 204 DuPont Hall Phone: 302-831-3244 Fax: 302-831-4545 Email: zide@udel.edu
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