Semiconductor Devices: Electronic devices form the foundation of modern technology. Advances in engineering at the fundamental level of semiconductor material growth and device fabrication can cascade into huge improvements in system performance.

Semiconductor Interfaces: All semiconductor devices rely on interfaces to other material, such as metals and insulators. Defects and disorder at these interfaces cause significant detriment to devices, particularly semiconductor-insulator interfaces using semiconductors other than silicon. Dr. Vavasour has significant expertise in pre-deposition surface treatments, engineering of deposition processes, post-deposition anneal treatments and modelling/analysis of characterised samples

Electrical Characterisation: Characterisation is a vital tool for research, but also for quality control in industry. Electrical characterisation represents a direct way to assess device performance against design requirements, but it also offers a route to study electrically-active defects. Dr. Vavasour has worked extensively in I-V and C-V characterisation, cryogenic characterisation, semi-automated wafer probing, high-temperature probing, automation and statistical analysis

X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy: In addition to electrical characterisation, physical characterisation can be used to identify and analyse elemental composition, layer structures and chemical bonding. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) allows the chemistry of the top few nanometers of the sample to be studied in detail, including the bonding states of the surface atoms. Dr. Vavasour is experienced in XPS data acquisition, fitting, interpretation and analysis, and offers support to semiconductor researchers in the School of Engineering who wish to study surfaces and interfaces by XPS

2018-present: Research Fellow

• Management of semiconductor characterisation equipment in the School of Engineering, including installation, build, commissioning, maintenance, training and upgrades
• Supporting PhD students with semiconductor device fabrication and characterisation
• Defect reduction and minority carrier lifetime enhancement in SiC

2014-2018: PhD Student

• Title: 'Dielectrics for Narrow Bandgap III-V Devices'
• Fabrication, characterisation and development of indium antimonide dielectric interfaces
• Modelling and analysis of metal-oxide-semiconductor test structures
• Refurbishment and maintenance of cryogenic characterisation instrument