PhD and MSc Opportunities

There are a limited number of PhD places available, most of which are linked to current research projects and start in October of a given year. Application procedures and further details can be found on the departmental postgraduate pages. Suitably qualified students with independent sources of funding can apply at any time and we will discuss possible research projects leading to either a PhD or a one year MSc.

Typical postgraduate student project will involve training in a wide variety of techniques from design and epitaxial growth of semiconductor layer structures, through assessment of physical and electrical characteristics, to final device measurements. At each stage there will be opportunities to undertake simulation and modelling of the results and to predict expected performance. By the end of their project students should expect to be experts in several or more experimental techniques, such as epitaxial growth, devices fabrication, electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, electrical measurements over a wide temperature range down to the milikelvin regime, in magnetic fields and from d.c. to high frequencies, etc and acquire strong knowledge in epitaxy, materials science, physics of semiconductor materials and devices, applied physics, nanotechnology and quantum physics. As such, past graduates from the Group have been highly employable and gone on to work in academia, industry (some extremely well paid!) and commerce.

Details of current opportunities in the group can be found below.

If you are interested in any of these projects or the group's research areas then please contact Dr Maksym Myronov.

PhD projects to start in October 2024.

The students will be enrolled on the Materials Physics Doctorate scheme (go.warwick.ac.uk/MPDOC). This gives access to a tailored research degree to exploit Warwick’s outstanding materials growth, fabrication, characterisation and computational capabilities, and those at central facilities. A broad education in Materials Physics is provided through dedicated modules under the Midlands Physics Alliance Graduate School, and external courses.

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Materials science and quantum physics of strained germanium semiconductor spin qubit

This experimental PhD project is an exciting opportunity to be involved in innovative and pioneering research on the intersection of materials science and quantum physics. The project is based on pioneering work at Warwick University, led to invention of high mobility holes in cs-GoS semiconductor material. The experimental information will add greatly to knowledge of materials science, quantum physics and technologies; and is expected to enable novel spin qubit quantum devices architectures. Epitaxial growth of the cs-GoS material for this research will be carried out at Warwick University, using unique to UK academia, epitaxial growth equipment upgraded beyond state of the art. Characterisation of grown materials and fabricated quantum devices will be carried out in-house using a range of sate of the art equipment and techniques, and in collaboration with existing national and international academic and industrial partners. Nanofabrication of spin qubit devices and their electrical characterisation, down to mK temperatures, will involve very close collaboration with scientists from leading universities and research centres. Successful outcome from the project would lead to high impact publications in international scientific journals and creation of intellectual property with enormous impact potential.

The successful PhD candidate is expected to have an outstanding track record, with demonstrable strong background in science and technology of cs-GoS semiconductor material, semiconductor devices, including spin qubits, and quantum physics. The skills and experience learned throughout the PhD will make the candidate an expert in quantum physics and technologies, materials characterisation and quantum devices nanofabrication.

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Measurements of 2D holes mobility and related parameters in new class of quantum materials

Carrier mobility, along with a reasonably large energy band gap, is one of the most important quality measures of any semiconductor material, determining its suitability for applications in a large variety of classical electronic, optoelectronic and sensor devices, as well as for novel applications in emerging quantum devices. Higher mobility enables faster operation of a device at lower power consumption and can significantly improve performance of a sensor device. More importantly, mobility is the critical quality for quantum devices, often playing a key role towards new discoveries. Free mobile holes of the valance band energy spectrum in strained Germanium (s-Ge) semiconductor are attracting rapidly growing interest due to their unique properties for innovative quantum devices technologies, research and potential applications. Additionally, s-Ge epitaxially grown on silicon is fully compatible with the mature technologies of silicon foundries that attract increased interest from the academic and industrial research and development communities pursuing large-scale quantum applications. Recent breakthrough in enhancement of 2D holes mobility in the s-Ge semiconductor has led to emergence of new class of quantum material. The 2D holes mobility in s-Ge is one the highest among all semiconductors. This major breakthrough is achieved as a consequence of the development of state-of-the-art epitaxial growth technology culminated in demonstrating superior monocrystalline quality of the s-Ge material with very low density of background impurities and other imperfections resulted in unprecedently high free hole mobility, very low percolation 2D hole density and unique spin and quantum properties.

You are offered a unique opportunity to undertake an experimental project at the cutting edge of materials science and physics. A key objective of this experimental project is to measure 2D hole mobility and related parameters as a function of hole density and temperature in s-Ge field effect devices. This detailed experimental and following up theoretical studies are required to understand microscopic mechanisms that limit hole mobility in s-Ge material and explain emergence of the lowest percolation 2D hole density and unique spin and quantum properties.

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Selective epitaxial growth of Silicon Carbide thin film materials

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a wide band gap compound semiconductor material attractive for future applications in high power and high frequency electronic devices, UV photonic devices and sensors including those for bio-medical, industrial, IoT and automotive sectors. Epitaxial growth of a semiconductor material thin film with thickness starting from sub-nanometre is an essential front end technology from which fabrication of any modern and advanced semiconductor device begins. In particular, selective epitaxial growth is the most advanced epitaxy technology enabled appearance of high end electronic and photonic devices widely used in everyday life. Selective epitaxy permits growth of a monocrystalline semiconductor material on a surface of another monocrystalline semiconductor surrounded by a non-crystalline material preventing epitaxy on its surface. Thus, the technology allows integration of different materials on the same substrate, and potentially could be a solution for very challenging heteroepitaxy of highly mismatched materials. Nowadays, selective epitaxy of silicon and silicon germanium materials is widely used to in production, development and research of modern and future devices. Such modern devices are inside of computers, smartphones and a large variety of electronic gadgets, and life without most of them is unimaginable. However, essential selective epitaxy of SiC has not been demonstrated yet. The reason for it is extremely high growth temperatures of SiC at which any mask material melts. Recently, a new low-temperature SiC epitaxy technology has been invented at Warwick University, which opens up the opportunity for selective epitaxy of SiC.
This PhD project is an exciting opportunity to be involved in an innovative and pioneering research on selective epitaxial growth of SiC semiconductor material. Selective epitaxy physics of SiC is expected to be researched and understood. The project is based on recent ground breaking work demonstrating SiC epitaxy at low-temperature which has led to high impact research and the formation of a spin-out company. The experimental information will add greatly to the knowledge of materials science and condensed matter physics; and enable a wide range of electronic, photonic and sensor device architectures. Epitaxial growth for this research will be carried out at Warwick University, using unique to UK academia industrial type Reduced Pressure Chemical Vapour Deposition (RP-CVD) equipment upgraded beyond state of the art. Patterned substrates for the selective epitaxy will be fabricated in house and supplied by industrial and academic collaborators. Characterisation of grown materials will be carried out in-house using a range of state of the art equipment and techniques including XTEM, SEM, AFM, HR-XRD, XRR, Raman spectroscopy, Spectroscopic Ellipsometry, FTIR, Hall effect and resistivity, etc. The successful PhD candidate will work at the cutting edge of semiconductor research and collaborate closely with experts across academia and industry. The skills and experience learned throughout the PhD will make the candidate an expert in epitaxial growth, metrology and device fabrication, skills which can be transferred across the semiconductor and broader condensed matter fields. The project will involve collaboration with scientists from national and international universities as well as with research groups from leading semiconductor companies. Successful outcome from the project would lead to high impact publications in international scientific journals, creation of IP with enormous impact potential and application of developed selective epitaxy of SiC in a variety of power and RF electronic devices and sensors using capabilities of academic and industrial collaborators.