Graduate Student Seminar

February 14, 2025

10:00 a.m. ET

McConomy Auditorium, First Floor Cohon University Center

Epitaxial integration of dissimilar semiconductors for infrared optoelectronics

Integrating dissimilar semiconductors on a single crystal platform can power the next generation of electronics and photonics applications. In such a platform, semiconductors like III-V and IV-VI materials bring exciting new properties to the table and leverage the scale and functionality of conventional silicon technology. The synthesis of high-quality semiconductor thin films while mediating this dissimilarity, however, is quite the materials science challenge. These very differences in properties also lead to unusual interfaces and crystal defects such as dislocations that severely degrade device performance. In this talk, we update our understanding of how dislocations are bad for epitaxially integrated telecom lasers on silicon using new microscopy and microanalysis tools, and we present on our progress in engineering dislocation tolerance in such devices using MBE-grown III-V (InAs) quantum dots. With an eye towards materials and devices naturally more tolerant to dislocations, we will show new opportunities that arise from MBE-grown IV-VI (PbSe-SnSe) mid-infrared light emitters and crystalline-crystalline phase change materials grown epitaxially on III-V substrates.

Mukherjee

Kunal Mukherjee
Assistant professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering,  Stanford University

Mukherjee's research interests are in compound semiconductor thin film synthesis and defect science. Prof. Mukherjee received his B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, M.S. from the National University of Singapore, and his M.Eng. and Ph.D. from MIT in Materials Science and Engineering. Before joining Stanford, he has been an assistant professor in the Materials department at UC Santa Barbara (2016-2020) and has held postdoctoral appointments at IBM and MIT. His work on epitaxy and crystal defects has been recognized by a NSF CAREER award, the Corbett Prize at the International Conference on Defects in Semiconductors, the Young Scientist Award of the 2023 International Symposium on Compound Semiconductors, and the Young Investigator Award at the 2024 North American Molecular Beam Epitaxy conference. 



Upcoming Events

  • February 21 2025

    10:00 AM ET

    Materials Science and Engineering

    Graduate Student Seminar

    presented by Andrew Goretsky, ADL Philadelphia

    McConomy Auditorium, First Floor Cohon University Center

  • February 28 2025

    10:00 AM ET

    Materials Science and Engineering

    Graduate Student Seminar

    Extreme mechanics and manufacturing of materials across scales, presented by Yu Zou, University of Toronto

    McConomy Auditorium, First Floor Cohon University Center

  • March 14 2025

    10:00 AM ET

    Materials Science and Engineering

    Graduate Student Seminar

    A Journey from Atoms to Materials: Computationally-Guided Discovery and Design of Functional Materials, presented by Prashun Gorai, Colorado School of Mines

    McConomy Auditorium, First Floor Cohon University Center

  • March 21 2025

    10:00 AM ET

    Materials Science and Engineering

    Graduate Student Seminar

    Thermophysical and Thermochemical Properties of Transition Metal Diborides up to and above 3000 degrees, presented by Scott J. McCormack, University of California, Davis

    McConomy Auditorium, First Floor Cohon University Center

  • March 28 2025

    10:00 AM ET

    Materials Science and Engineering

    Graduate Student Seminar

    Deciphering microscopic mechanisms driving assembly and flow of soft materials, presented by Vikram Jadhao, Indiana University, Bloomington

    McConomy Auditorium, First Floor Cohon University Center

  • April 11 2025

    10:00 AM ET

    Materials Science and Engineering

    Graduate Student Seminar

    The Green Steel Revolution, presented by Sara Hornby-Anderson

    McConomy Auditorium, First Floor Cohon University Center