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Honorary Professor Chris McConville

I am an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Warwick having previously been the Professor of Experimental Physics until 2016. I was first appointed as a member of academic staff in Physics at Warwick in 1990 and subsequently promoted to Professor in 2003. For the period 2010 to 2016 I was both Head of the Nanosciences Reseach Cluster and the Surfaces, Interfaces & Thin Films Group in the Department of Physics, while from October 2011 to December 2015, I was also Director of the Science City Research Alliance (SCRA), a collaboration between the University of Warwick and the University of Birmingham, where I also hold an Honorary Professorship in Physics. In March 2016 my research group relocated to Australia following my appointment as Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation at RMIT University in Melbourne. In July 2020 I moved to become the new Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research, and the Senior Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research, Strategy & Performance at Deakin University, also in Melbourne. My research interests broadly cover the growth, surface and interface properties of novel semiconducting materials - including oxides, nitrides and carbide materials, using a range of experimental techniques including photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS, UPS & ARPES), scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) to extract physical and electronic structure information of the surfaces and interfaces to compare with the bulk properties of these materials. Since moving to Australia I have also established a new research direction investigating 2D exfoliated films from liquid metal surfaces in collaboration with colleagues at RMIT and UNSW, applying the same arsenal of surface sensitive techniques to investigate these novel 2D materials. I have published more than 320 papers in international refereed journals which have attracted over 13,600 citations (h-index 65 - Google Scholar), as well as publishing several book chapters and an edited book "Indium Nitride and Related Alloys". From 2012-2020 I was also an Editor for Elsevier's largest journal Applied Surface Science (impact factor 6.5 - June 2020).

KEY RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • Surface and interface structure and electronic structure of 2D exfoliated oxide and nitride materials from liquid metal surfaces
  • Electronic structure of oxide semiconductors and in particular, transparent conducting oxides (TCO's - CdO, ZnO, SnO2, Ga2O3 and In2O3)
  • Physical and electronic structure of complex oxides - surfaces and interfaces: e.g. perovskites (LaAlO3, LaNiO3, SrTiO3, LaMnO3)
  • Epitaxial growth and characterisation of β-Ga2O3 for power electronic device applications
  • In-situ studies using variable temperature STM-AFM and HR-XPS of epitaxial growth of binary and complex oxides grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).

LATEST NEWS

CFM relocated to Australia in 2016 and was latterly Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research
& Senior Pro-Vice Chancellor Research Strategy & Performance at Deakin University in Melbourne
(2020 - 2024).

CFM GROUP - RECENT RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

  • Several high profile papers have recently been published in Nature Electronics, Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Chemistry, Nature Synthesis and Nature Communications including:

"Low Temperature Isotropic Liquid Platinum Catalysis"
Md. Arifur Rahim, J. Tang, A.J. Christofferson, P. Kumar, N. Meftahi, F. Centurion, J. Yang, M. Baharfar, M. Mayyas, F-M. Allioux, P. Koshy, T. Daeneke, C.F. McConville, R.B. Kaner, S.P. Russo and K. Kalantar-zadeh
Nature Chemistry, 14 (2022) 935-941. DOI: 10.1038/s41557-022-00965-6

"Oscillatory Bifurcation Patterns Initiated by Seeding Surface Solidification of Liquid Metals"
J. Tang, S. Lambie, N. Meftahi, A.J. Christofferson, J. Yang, J. Han, Md. Arifur Rahim, M. Mayyas, M.B. Ghasemain, F-M. Allioux, Z. Cao, T. Daeneke, C.F. McConville, K.G. Steenbergen, R.B. Kaner, S.P. Russo, N. Gatson and K. Kalantar-zadeh
Nature Synthesis, 1 (2022) 158-169. DOI: 10.1038/s44160-21-00020-1

"High Mobility p-Type Semiconducting Two-Dimensional β-TeO2"
A. Zavabeti, P. Aukarasereenont, H. Tuohey, N. Syed, A. Jannat, A. Elbourne, K. Massalea, B.Y. Zhang, B.J. Murdoch, J.G. Partridge, S. Battacharyya, J. van Embden, M.S. Fuhrer, K. Kalantar-zadeh, S.P. Russo, C.F. McConville and T. Daeneke
Nature Electronics, 4 (2021) 277-283. DOI: 10.1038/s41928-021-00561-5

"Unique Surface Patterns Emerging during Solidification of Liquid Metal Alloys"
J. Tang, S. Lambie, N. Meftahi, A.J. Christofferson, J. Yang, M.B. Ghasemain, J. Han, F-M. Allioux, Md. Arifur Rahim, M. Mayyas, T. Daeneke, K.G. Steenbergen, R.B. Kaner, C.F. McConville, S.P. Russo, N. Gatson and K. Kalantar-zadeh,
Nature Nanotechnology, 16 (2021) 431-439. DOI: 10.1038/s41565-020-00835-7

"Flexible Two-Dimensional Indium Tin Oxide Fabricated using a Liquid Metal Printing Technique"
R.S. Datta, N. Syed, A. Zavabeti, A. Jannat, Md. Mohiuddin, Md. Rokunuzzaman, B.Y. Zhang, Md. Ataur Rahman, P. Atkin, K.A. Messalea, M.B. Ghasemia, E. Della Gaspera, S. Battacharyya, M.S. Fuhrer, S.P. Russo, C.F. McConville, D. Esrafilzadeh, K. Kalantar-zadeh and T. Daeneke
Nature Electronics, 3 (2020) 51-58. DOI: 10.1038/s41928-019-0353-8

"Antipathogenic Low-Dimensional Materials based on Liquid Metals: Synthesis, Properties & Applications"
Z. Shaw, S. Kuriakose, M.D. Dickey, R.J. Crawford, C.F. McConville, J. Genzer, V.K. Truong and S. Walia
Nature Communications, 12 (2021) 3897. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-23278-7

"Printing of 2D Gallium Phosphate out of Liquid Metal"
N. Syed, A. Zavabeti, Md Mohiuddin, N. Pillai, B.J. Carey, B.Y. Zhang, R.S. Datta, K.A. Messalea, F. Haque, A. Jannat, C. Xu, S.P. Russo, C.F. McConville, T. Daeneke and K. Kalantar-zadeh
Nature Communications, 9 (2018) 3618. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06124-1

  • In December 2015 CFM completed his appointed Director of the Birmingham and Warwick Science City Research Alliance (SCRA) - a post he had held since 2011.
  • In March 2014 CFM was interviewed by the BBC for the regional news programme "Midlands Today" to discuss the impact of the Science City Research Alliance (SCRA) working to provide regional companies and industry in the West Midlands with access to the latest state-of-the-art equipment and facilities at the Universities of Warwick and Birmingham. The whole interview can be viewed on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFWdn10Rj78
  • In July 2012 CFM accepted an invitation to join the Editorial Board of Applied Surface Science. With over 18,000 manuscript submissions per year, Applied Surface Science (APSUSC) is the largest journal in the Elsevier publishing house of over 2,300 journals. APSUSC now has an impact factor of 6.5 (June 2020).
  • In 2013 a collaboration between Physics and Engineering at Warwick resulted in a £1.61M award from EPSRC to establish a new SiC CVD growth facility as part of the UK initiative in Power Electronics. The new SiC CVD Reactor was delivered by LPE (Milan), and installed in the Department of Physics in October 2013.
  • CFM was appointed Director of the Birmingham and Warwick Science City Research Alliance (SCRA) with effect from 1st October 2011. The post ran until the end of December 2015.
  • In 2010 the CFM group benefitted from £1.52M of capital investment funding for new equipment from Advantage West Midlands (AWM) and the European Research and Development Fund (ERDF), under the Science Cities initiative, and we have purchased two completely new UHV growth and surface analysis systems. The first is a combined PLD facility with in-situ high pressure RHEED, XPS and variable temperature STM/AFM capability, and the second is a state-of-the-art ultra-high resolution electron spectroscopy system combining monochromatic XPS with monochromatic UV angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES).
  • In 2009 Tim Veal, Bill Schaff and CFM edited and published the first comprehensive book on InN and its related alloys InGaN and InAlN, since it was accepted that the band-gap of InN is 0.65 eV rather than the previously accepted value of 1.9 eV. "InN and Related Alloys", CRC Press, Taylor & Francis (ISBN: 978-1-4200-7809-1).
  • In early 2009 CFM was interviewed to discuss the application of nitride semiconductor materials and their potential impact as high efficiency solar cells. This interview is now a podcast and can be downloaded from http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/audio/?podcastItem=indiumnitride.mp3

 

CFM GROUP - FURTHER PARTICULARS

My research group uses electron spectroscopy (high resolution XPS and angle-resolved UV photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) to probe the near-surface structure and electronic properties of semiconducting materials. We also have a range of optical spectroscopies, including absorption, FTIR, UV-vis and Raman spectroscopy and developed semi-classical dielectric theory and charge profile calculations to analyse data from these materials.

Since 2004 we have established a world-leading research programme to investigate the surface and interface properties of indium nitride (InN) and obtained the first direct evidence of electron accumulation at an InN(0001) surface grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). In addition we have shown using angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) that these surface electrons exist in quantized sub-bands. Also when InN is combined with GaN it is now possible to tune the band-gap of InGaN alloys to reproduce any frequency of light emission across the entire visible spectrum - the first time this has been achievable in a single materials system.

Since 2010 we have been investigating the properties of transparent (semi-)conducting oxide materials (TCO's such as CdO, ZnO, SnO2 and In2O3) - all of which exhibit a range of interesting electronic structure and properties. This work is possible because of the improvement in the epitaxial growth quality of these oxide materials as single crystal thin films. We later expanded this area of research with the addition of a new combined pulsed laser deposition (PLD) facility equipped with in-situ high pressure RHEED, XPS and STM/AFM capability for investigating both binary and complex perovskite oxide surfaces and interfaces grown in-situ.

The overall aim of the research is to further the understanding of the physical, electronic and transport properties of epitaxially grown semiconducting materials for applications in a broad range of novel device structures.

 CFM with the new Scienta R4000 high resoluton analyser for angle-resolved photoemission and Fermi surface mapping of novel materials

CFM with his new ARPES R4000 analyser in the surface science laboratories at The University of Warwick.

COLLABORATIONS

We have had a number of fruitful interdisciplinary collaborations with groups in the UK and internationally. In the UK there are strong links with with two of my former PhD students - at the University of Liverpool (Prof. Tim Veal) on the optical properties of semiconducting oxides and nitrides, and at the University of St. Andrews (Prof. Philip King) on electronic structure determined by ARPES. Internationally we collaborate with research groups growing both III-nitrides and oxides by MBE and MOVPE, including the groups at: Ritsumiekin University, Japan and Seoul National University, Korea (Prof. Y. Nanishi), University of Hawaii, USA (Prof. S.M. Durbin), UC Santa Barbara, USA (Prof. J.S. Speck), CNRS, Valbonne, France (Dr. J. Zuniga-Perez), and University of Valencia, Spain (Prof. V. Munoz-Sanjose). All these groups have supplied either InN, InAlN and InGaN samples, or CdO, In2O3 and ZnO samples for electron and optical spectroscopy experiments based at Warwick. We also collaborate with the University of Aarhus, Denmark (Prof. Phillip Hofmann) to use the ASTRID synchrotron radiation source for UV photoemission studies, and with the theoretical physics groups at the Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany (Prof. F. Bechstedt) and UC Santa Barbara, USA (Prof. C.G. van der Walle), who perform band structure calculations using density functional theory.

Overall I have published 320 papers on many aspects of semiconductor surfaces, interface formation and epitaxial growth as an author and co-author in international refereed journals which have attracted over 13,800 citations (h-index 65 - Google Scholar) and several book chapters. I have also delivered over 75 invited talks at national and international conferences and workshops, and over 100 invited seminars and colloquia. (To see the full list of publications please refer to Web of Science or Google Scholar and search McConville CF)

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

  • Ultra-thin Gallium and Indium Nitride Nanosheets: Wafer-sized Fabrication of Liquid Metal Oxides, N. Syed, A. Zavabeti, E. Della Gaspera, A. Elbourne, A. Jannat, Md Mohiuddin, B.Y. Zhang, D. Esrafilzadeh, C.F. McConville, K. Kalantar-zadeh, and T. Daeneke, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 141 (2019) 104-108. DOI: 10.1121/jacs.8b11483
  • SnTe Microcrystals: Surface Cleaning of a Topological Crystalline Insulator, M. Saghir, M. Walker, C.F. McConville, & G. Balakrishnan, Appl. Phys. Lett. 108 (2016) 061602.
  • Surface Passivation of Semiconducting Oxides by Self-Assembled Nanoparticles, D.S. Park, H. Wamg, S.K. Vasheghani-Farahani, M. Walker, A. Bhatnagar, D. Seghier, C-J Choi, J-H Kang and C.F. McConville, Nature Scientific Reports, 6 (2016) 18449.
  • Structural, Optical and Vibrational Properties of Self-Assembled Pbn+1(Ti1-xFex)nO3n+1 Ruddlesden-Popper Superstructures, K.I. Doig, J.J.P. Peters, S. Nawaz, D. Walker, M. Walker, M.R. Lees, R. Beanland, A.M. Sanchez, C.F. McConville, V.R. Palkar & J. Lloyd-Hughes, Nature Scientific Reports, 5 (2015) 7719.
  • Recystallization of Highly-Mismatched BexZn1-xO Alloys: Formation of a Degenerate Interface, Dae-Sung Park, S.K. Vasheghani Farahani , M. Walker, J.J. Mudd, A. Krupski, E.B. Thorsteinsson, D. Seghier, Chel- Jong Choi, Chang-Ju Youn, & C.F. McConville, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 6 (2014) 18758.
  • Valence-Band Orbital Character of CdO: Synchrotron-Radiation Photoemission Spectroscopy and Density Functional Theory, J.J. Mudd, Tien-Lin Lee, V. Muñoz-Sanjosé, J. Zuñiga-Pérez, D.J. Payne, R.G. Egdell & C.F. McConville, Phys. Rev. B. 89 (2014) 165305.
  • Hard X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy as a Probe of the Intrinsic Electronic Properties of CdO, J.J. Mudd, Tien-Lin Lee, V. Muñoz-Sanjosé, J. Zuñiga-Pérez, J.M. Kahk, D.J. Payne, R.G. Egdell and C.F. McConville

    Phys. Rev. B. 89 (2014) 035203.

  • Giant Reduction of InN Surface Electron Accumulation: Compensation of Surface Donors by Mg Dopants, W.M. Linhart, J. Chai, R.J.H. Morris, M.G. Dowesett, C.F. McConville, S.M. Durbin & T.D. Veal, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109 (2012) 247605.
  • Electron Mobility in CdO Films, S. Vasheghani Farahani, T. D. Veal, P. D. C. King, J. Zuñiga-Pérez, V. Muñoz-Sanjosé & C.F. McConville, J. Appl. Phys. 109 (2011) 073712.
  • Polarity Effects in the Soft-X-ray Photoemission of ZnO, M. Allen, D. Zemlyanovy, G.I.N. Waterhouse, J.B. Metson, T.D. Veal, C.F. McConville & S.M. Durbin, Appl. Phys. Lett. 98 (2011) 101906.
  • Surface Band-Gap Narrowing in Quantized Electron Accumulation Layers, P.D.C. King, T.D. Veal, C.F. McConville, A. Schleife, J. Zuňiga-Pérez, V. Muňoz-Sanjosé, M. Hopkinson, E.D.L. Rienks, M. Fuglsang & Ph. Hofmann, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104 (2010) 256803.
  • Surface, Bulk and Interface Electronic Properties of Non-Polar InN, W.M. Linhart, T.D. Veal, P.D.C. King, G. Koblmüller, C.S. Gallinat, J.S. Speck & C.F. McConville, Appl. Phys. Lett. 97 (2010) 112103.
  • Unification of the Electrical Behaviour of Defects, Impurities and Surface States in Semiconductors: Virtual Gap States in CdO, P.D.C. King, P.H. Jefferson, J. Zuňiga-Pérez, V. Muňoz-Sanjosé & C.F. McConville, Phys. Rev. B, 79 (2009) 035203.
  • Surface Electron Accumulation and the Charge Neutrality Level in In2O3, P.D.C. King, T.D. Veal, D.J. Payne, A. Bourlange, R.G. Egdell & C.F. McConville, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101 (2008) 116808.
  • Unintentional Conductivity of Indium Nitride: Transport Modelling and Microscopic Origins, P.D.C. King, T.D. Veal and C.F. McConville, J. Phys.: Cond. Matt. 21 (2009) 174.
  • Band-gap and Effective Mass Determination of Epitaxial CdO, P.H. Jefferson , T.D. Veal, S.A. Hatfield, P.D.C. King, C.F. McConville, J. Zuňiga-Pérez & V. Muňoz-Sanjosé, Appl. Phys. Lett. 92 (2008) 022101.
  • Coupled Poisson-Schrödinger Solutions for Quantized Electron Accumulation Layers: Band Bending, Charge and Subbands at InN Surfaces, P.D.C. King, T.D. Veal & C.F. McConville, Phys. Rev. B 77 (2008) 125305.
  • Determination of the Branch Point Energy of InN: Chemical Trends in Common Cation and Common-Anion Semiconductors, P.D.C. King, T.D. Veal, P.H. Jefferson, S.A. Hatfield, L.F.J. Piper, J. Furthmuller, F. Bechstedt, W. J. Schaff & C.F. McConville, Phys. Rev. B 77 (2008) 045316.
  • Indium Adlayers on c-Plane InN Surfaces: A Polarity Dependent Study by X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, T.D. Veal, P.D.C. King, P.H. Jefferson, C.F. McConville, Hai Lu, W.J. Schaff, P.A. Anderson, S.M. Durbin, D. Muto, H. Naoi & Y. Nanishi, Phys. Rev. B 76 (2007) 075313.
  • Universality of Electron Accumulation at Wurtzite, c- and a-Plane and zinc-blende InN Surfaces, P.D.C. King, T.D. Veal, P.H. Jefferson, L.F.J. Piper, C.F. McConville, P. Schley, R. Goldhahn, D.J. As, K. Lischka, D. Muto, H. Naoi, Y. Nanishi, Hai Lu & W. J. Schaff, Applied Physics Letters 91 (2007) 092101.
  • Quantized Electron Accumulation States in Indium Nitride studies by Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectrocopy, L. Colakerol, T.D. Veal, et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 97 (2006) 237601.
  • Intrinsic Electron Accumulation at clean InN Surfaces, I. Mahboob, T.D. Veal, C.F. McConville, H. Lu & W.J. Schaff, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92 (2004) 036804.
  • Negative Band Gaps in Dilute InNSb Alloys, T.D. Veal, I. Mahboob & C.F. McConville, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92 (2004) 136801.

     CFM in Melbourne 2013

    Contact Details:

    Professor C.F. McConville
    Former Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research (Acting) & Senior Pro Vice-Chancellor Research Strategy & Performance

    Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research,
    Deakin University, Melbourne, Victoria 3216
    Australia

    and

    Emeritus Professor of Experimental Physics Department of Physics University of Warwick Coventry CV4 7AL UK.

    E-Mail: c dot f dot mcconville at warwick dot ac dot uk
     

    InN Book cover