Electronic materials that can withstand harsh environments are essential for safety sensors. The electronics of a nuclear reactor, for example, must be resistant to high temperatures and radiation.Typical siliconbased electronics cannot endure such extreme conditions.
Widebandgap semiconductors – such as silicon carbide (SiC) or gallium oxide (Ga2O3) – can overcome harsh environmental limitations. These robust and transparent materials have high melting temperatures, are chemically stable, and operate under radiation exposure.
However, the ability to control electronic properties required for device applications remains very challenging in harsh environments.
In this project, we study the possibility of using femtosecondultrafast lasers to modify the physical properties of widebandgap semiconductors.
An ultrafast laser generates an extreme short pulse that is 1,000 times faster than the clock period of a 1 GHz computer.
When the laser’s light pulse delivers energy to the semiconductor in femtosecond scale - which is one quadrillionth of a second or 1 million nanoseconds - it leads to an highly non-equilibrium state where the temperature of electrons and the periodic grid of atoms in crystal material, known as lattices, are unmatched.
