In a study that confirms its promise as the next-generation semiconductor material, UC Santa Barbara researchers have directly visualized the photocarrier transport properties of cubic boron arsenide single crystals.
“We were able to visualize how the charge moves in our sample,” said Bolin Liao, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering. Using the only scanning ultrafast electron microscopy (SUEM) setup in operation at a U.S. university, he and his team were able to make “movies” of the generation and transport processes of a photoexcited charge in this relatively little-studied III-V semiconductor material, which has recently been recognized as having extraordinary electrical and thermal properties. In the process, they found another, beneficial property that adds to the material’s potential as the next great semiconductor.
Their research, conducted in collaboration with physics professor Zhifeng Ren’s group at the University of Houston, who specialize in fabricating high-quality single crystals of cubic boron arsenide, appears in the journal Matter.
