Whilst at the University of Bristol studying for an MSci in chemistry it became clear to me that my interests lay in physical chemistry. As part of my undergraduate degree, I carried out a final year project in the Bristol University Diamond Group with Professor Paul May. This was spent looking at diamond as a material for thermionic emission. Carrying out this project gave me an insight into the capabilities of diamond which resulted in a desire to study it further a learn more about the variety of possible applications. This course is a fantastic opportunity to do just, being taught by experts from a range of different backgrounds. Additionally, I am looking forward to spending time and experiencing different universities during my mini-projects before returning to Bristol for my PhD with Professor Martin Kuball.

PhD Title: Diamond - Semiconductor Integration - The Challenge of Thermal Expansion Mismatch
PhD Supervisor: Prof. Martin Kuball
Institution: University of Bristol

Achievements

Best student presentation at the UKNC Winter Meeting 2021

Publications

"Crystalline Interlayers for Reducing the Effective Thermal Boundary Resistance in GaN-on-Diamond", Field, D. E., Cuenca, J. A., Smith, M., Fairclough, S. M., Massabuau, F. C. P., Pomeroy, J. W., Williams, O., Oliver, R. A., Thayne, I., & Kuball, M. (2020). ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 12, 54138–54145, doi: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.0c10129

"Mixed-size diamond seeding for low-thermal-barrier growth of CVD diamond onto GaN and AlN", E.J.W. Smith, A.H. Piracha, D. Field, J.W. Pomeroy, G.R. Mackenzie, Z. Abdallah, F.C.-P. Massabuau, A.M. Hinz, D.J. Wallis, R.A. Oliver, M. Kuball, P.W. May, Carbon (2020), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2020.05.050.

"Thermal stress modelling of diamond on GaN/III-Nitride membranes", Cuenca, J. A.et al., Carbon (2020) (10.1016/j.carbon.2020.11.067).

"Thermal Boundary Resistance of Direct van der Waals Bonded GaN-on-Diamond", Waller, W. M., Pomeroy, J. W., Field, D. E., Smith, E. J. W., May, P. W., & Martin, K. (2020), Semiconductor Science and Technology, 35(9).

"GaN-on-diamond technology platform: Bonding-free membrane manufacturing process", Smith, M. D., Cuenca, J. A., Field, D. E., Fu, Y.-C., Yuan, C., Massabuau, F., Mandal, S., Pomeroy, J. W., Oliver, R. A., Uren, M. J., Elgaid, K., Williams, O. A., Thayne, I., & Kuball, M. (2020), AIP Advances, 10(3), doi: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5129229