9222876 Merz This award supports the participation of a group of young American scientists and engineers in a regional European collaboration investigating the electronic properties of semiconductor quantum structures. The technical coordinator for the U.S. side of the linked effort is Professor James Merz, Director of the Science and Technology Center for Quantized Electronic Structures (QUEST) at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The senior U.S. participants in the proposed research are Professors H. Kroemer and P. Petroff of UCSB; however, the engineers to be funded by this NSF award are students, postdoctoral researchers and new faculty affiliated with QUEST. The European group most involved in collaborating with the QUEST group is led by Professor J. P. Kotthaus of the Physics Section of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany. Their work is part of a regional effort with several European partners which is funded by the ESPRIT Basic Research Program. The participating U.S. and German engineers will produce three distinct lateral superlattice systems based on III-V semiconductor quantum structures and then investigate their specific electronic properties via dynamic conductivity experiments at low temperatures and in high magnetic fields. The U.S. group contributes expertise in the conception and fabrication of these structures by growth with molecular beam epitaxy and patterning with focused ion beam. The German group also has very strong fabrication capabilities with particular expertise in lithographic processing for semiconductor nanostructures. In addition, the German group has specialized equipment for detailed analysis of the electronic properties of the jointly fabricated structures. By combining their expertise and specialized facilities, they will be able to optimize the fabrication technologies and better assess which types of superlattices offer the best high-frequency device performance. In addition, the planned exchanges of junior researcher s between the two groups will give them the opportunity to work in a top flight laboratory with equipment and strengths different from their own. They will also gain insights into the practice of research in another country and make some early contacts with potential professional colleagues. ***
