A University of Saskatchewan researcher is exploring a new type of semiconductor material. The material system, a nitride composed of zinc, silicon, germanium and nitrogen, has broadly tunable properties, giving it the potential to be used in optoelectronic devices, including light emitting diodes (LEDs), lasers, field effect transistors and solar cells. Tristan de Boer, a PhD student in physics, is using two beamlines at the Canadian Light Source to learn more about the material's electronic properties and the defects that occur in the material. The brilliantly bright light allows him to see "deep" defects at various depths. "Deep" in de Boer's world is measured in nanometres and he talks about 10s and 100s of nanometres (one millimetre is equal to 1,000,000 nanometres).
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