BACKGROUND Dr. Leonard Brillson leads an interdisciplinary research effort in the key focus area of Electronic Materials at The Ohio State University. Dr. Brillson holds a joint appointment between the Department of Electrical Engineering,the Department of Physics, and the Center for Materials Research

Professor Brillson has established his OSU lab to conduct atomic-scale electronic and chemical studies of metallic and heterojunction interfaces, initially involving wide band gap semiconductors such GaN, SiC and Si-based dielectrics. He is promoting interdisciplinary programs in electronic materials across the Center for Materials Research.

Professor Leonard J. Brillson

Dr. Brillson received his A.B. degree in physics from Princeton and his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Pennsylvania.

RESEARCH INTERESTS Semiconductors, surface science, electronic materials interfaces, semiconductor growth, processing, and characterization, defects, laser annealing, luminescence, metal-semiconductor contacts, heterojunctions, nanoelectronics, optoelectronics.

Dr. Brillson has a broad research program in the structure and properties of electronic materials interfaces, emphasizing compound semiconductors for high speed microelectronic and optoelectronic device structures, wide band gap semiconductors for sensor and display applications, and thin film dielectrics for insulating gate structures. Understanding and control of such interfaces focuses on atomic-scale reaction and diffusion processes to control formation of localized electronic states, dipoles, Schottky barrier heights, and heterojunction band offsets. Experimental studies of electronic, chemical, and geometrical structure utilizing UV, X-ray, and soft x-ray photoemission spectroscopies, low energy (spatially-localized) cathodoluminescence and photoluminescence "buried interface" spectroscopies, Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) with sputter depth profiling, low energy electron diffraction (LEED), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), Kelvin probe surface photovoltage spectroscopy, conventional device transport techniques, and in-situ chemical processing via directed energy beams. The scaling down of electronic device dimensions into the nanometer-scale regime emphasizes the need for first-principles, atomic-scale control of interface properties. Recent advances include the discovery of heterojunction band offset variations with local atomic movements near interfaces and the role of localized trap states in controlling charge transfer across nanoparticle contacts.