Our research sits in the big, fun space between materials science, solid state physics, and opto-electronic technologies. Our current projects fall into three categories:

1. Photoresponse: Fundamental understanding, control through material processing, and utilization in device technology. Fundamental studies include controlling point defects in materials synthesis, developing new approaches to defect characterization, and exploring connections between photoresponse and magnetic (opto-magnetics) and mechanical (opto-mechanics) properties. Applied studies include work on resistive switches for microelectronics and carrier-selective contact materials for solar cells, among other things.

2. Layered and phase-change materials: Designing new alloys, developing new materials processing methods, and demonstrating new phase-change functionality and uses for layered chalcogenide materials in photonic integrated circuitry. Our work in this area is largely motivated by a collaborative project, MURI: New Phase-Chage Materials for Photonics.

3. Complex chalcognide semiconductors: Developing chalcogenide electronic materials in the perovskite and related crystal structures. Emphasis is on thin-film growth including molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), and plenty of work on materials characterization. Applied topics are the development of highly-polarizable semiconductors with tunable band gap for solid state lighting and energy conversion. Fundamental topics are the systematic control of electron correlation and bandwidth in quantum materials with strongly-coupled electron and phonon degrees of freedom.