For about five decades, the guiding leitmotif steering the exponential growth in Si-based microchipperformance and advancement has been relentless scaling down. This has currently been taken to such level that more and more physical limits are reached, forcing the silicon CMOS technology field to take ‘discontinuous’ steps. This is explored via two main routes, i.e., stepping to new devicesarchitectures combined with different operation principles and introduction of ‘new’  non-conventional materials. As to the latter, one is witnessing the introduction of other semiconductor channel materials of higher mobility than Si, such as SiGe alloys and III-V compounds. Here, the research on GaAs, InGaAs,and InP is receiving much attention, addressing among others, the problematicsituation with achieving efficient interface passivation.

Recently,a breakthrough has been made through the identification by electron spinresonance (ESR) of a point defect inherently generated at a III-Vsemiconductor/oxide interface, a first ever for III-V compounds. It concernsthe identification of the highly detrimental AsGa antisite, beinggenerated in substantial amounts during thermal oxidation of GaAs. The successheralds that this kind or research at interfaces of the non-conventional III-Vcompounds with insulators has become within reach of the achieved ESRsensitivity. During this research, other signals were observed of stillunidentified atomic origin.

The current PhD proposal situates in the fields of experimental semiconductorphysics research. The work intends to focus on the thermal (In)GaAs/oxideinterface aiming to atomically identify the defects of crucial impact on deviceperformance, and in this way to come to full identification of the centers(traps) at the origin of the multi-peak distribution of electron states in thebandgap. Full atomic identification of traps is essential to trace ways fortheir efficient elimination for device purposes.

The work is carried out using ESR, the almost exclusive technique when it comes to atomic identification ofdefects in semiconductors, in conjunction with leading electrical methods tosense electron states (CV, IV, GV, IPE). In a later part, building on acquiredinsight, it is intended to expand the study to InP and InGaAs interfaces.

The work, carried out within the Semiconductor Physics Laboratory, is embedded within a currently running multidisciplinary project of the Research Foundation-Flanders on spectroscopy of interface dipoles.

Key words: III-V semiconductors, GaAs, InGaAs, InP, point defects, interface nature, nanoscale structures,magnetic resonance

Remarks: The work willbe conducted in close collaboration with IMEC (Semiconductor technologyresearch center, Leuven), and various other institutes and universitiesworldwide.