Unchartered territories in electronics and photonics made possible with Aluminum Nitride: an ultra wide-bandgap semiconductor

23rd September 2020

Timing : 1 pm EST

For zoom link to the talks, please email mjgc@mit.edu with your institute email and mention affiliation


For a list of all talks at the NanoBio seminar Series 2020, see here


Once every several decades a revolutionary semiconductor offers a convergence of physical properties that are disruptive and change the status quo. Several materials are now competing for this spot (e.g. 2D Materials, Gallium Oxide, Diamond, etc). But in the 2020s, the clear winner is the ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor aluminum nitride (AlN). The fundamental physics and material properties of AlN offer a unique convergence of large and direct bandgap, polarization-induced electron/hole doping, highly piezoelectric coupling for acoustic wave devices (with potential ferroelectricity), nonlinear optical properties, and epitaxial integration with nitride superconductors for quantum technologies: all in the same material! In this broader-view talk, I will discuss why I am so excited about AlN by sharing recent breakthroughs enabled by this remarkable semiconductor in the fields of -
a) high speed 5G and mm-wave communications,
b) nitride digital electronics,
c) photonics, and
d) quantum technologies.