Thomas O'Connor

Thomas joined in September 2019 as a CDT PIADS student at the Irish Photonic Integration Centre at the Tyndall Research Institute, Cork.

 

CDT PhD Project

Boron containing alloys of III-Nitride semiconductors for Ultraviolet emission

Supervisor: Professor Peter Parbrook, Tyndall National Institute/ University College Cork

Co-supervisor: Dr Stefan Schulz, Tyndall National Institute/ University College Cork

I am working on the growth and modelling of boron containing III-Nitrides alloys, for their application in ultraviolet light emitting diodes and lasers. (B, Al, Ga)N is a promising material that may allow for more flexibility in tuning the bandgap energy and emission wavelengths of III-N devices. With addition of boron to III-Ns, it is possible to reduce the overall internal field in the corresponding (B, Al, Ga)N/(B, Al, Ga)N heterostructures (piezoelectric and spontaneous polarization components of the internal field can cancel each other) and thus supress the quantum confined stark effect leading to potentially more efficient UV emitters. My main area of focus at the moment is modelling and understanding these polarization fields.