This proposal from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), requests funds to establish a Science and Technology Center for Quantized Electronic Structures. The Director of the Center will be Professor James L. Merz. The Center for Quantized Electronic Structures will focus on new physical phenomena which can be realized in microstructures exhibiting quantum effects in one, two, or three dimensions. The actual fabrication of these structures is the complementary portion of the Center's research. These two areas will lead to a study of the technological impact of this new science; the novel devices made possible by the Center's investigations. The work at the Center will address the unusual physical phenomena, both electronic and optical, arising in quantized structures. Electron transport chosen for study include mobility in specially shaped potential wells, resonant and indirect tunnelling, and phase and interference effects. Optical phenomena include effects due to bound and free carriers and the question of spin-polarized electron beams. The Center will address not only the properties of individual quantum wires, boxes, and rings, but also the properties of new synthetic materials made by producing periodic arrays of these quantum structures. Various possibilities of forming low dimensional quantum structures will be considered either during the epitaxial growth process itself or using novel fabrication techniques to delineate the structures. Many of the processing techniques will make use of beam-induced changes in the material and will require a new understanding of beam/solid interactions from a fundamental molecular-chemistry point of view. Thus, a whole new science of crystal growth and processing is being created where much new basic understanding is required before progress can be made. The research performed at this Center is at a more fundamental level than either of the Engineering Research Centers in related areas at the University of Illinois or the University of Colorado/Colorado State University. Both of these Centers are focussed on more applied use of microelectronic technology: Colorado in the design of special purpose computers, and Illinois in the application of such devices for computer communications. The Science and Technology Center at UCSB will create the basic scientific understanding of the electronic materials used at the ERCs, in addition to totally new quantum structures for applications use. The MRL and the Nanofabrication Facility at Cornell University and the MRL at the University of Illinois are also engaged in some quantum phenomena research, but it does not overlap that of the Center at UCSB where the emphasis is on the smallest scales attainable. Means for cooperation between Centers involved in electronic materials research and application will be developed as appropriate.
