This work is conducted in collaboration with
Randy Feenstra, Art Smith, Vidhya Ramachandran, and Huajie Chen
(all of the Department of Physics)
The objective is to study the surface reconstructions when GaN or related materials are grown on sapphire or SiC substrates, and to use this knowledge to understand and improve the epitaxial growth process. We recently reported the first atomic-resolution images of the GaN surface.
This research is performed in a specially designed MBE system which permits in situ scanning probe microscopy. Some pictures of the system are shown below.
References to our publications can be found here and some publications can be downloaded from here.
Pictures of the MBE/STM system are found below: