Core Research Areas | Paul-Drude-Institut für Festkörperelektronik

At PDI, we believe in fostering cross-pollination of ideas and driving innovation through our interdisciplinary Core Research Areas (CReAs).

Our Core Research Areas encompass broad themes within the field of materials science, covering a wide range of methodologies and topics. These areas include Nanofabrication, Nanoanalytics, and Nanoelectronics, which are methodically-driven, as well as III-V Nanowires for Optoelectronics, Control of Elementary Excitations by Acoustic Fields, and Intersubband Emitters: GaAs-based Quantum-Cascade Lasers, which are topically-driven.

Our cross-departmental structure enables us to tackle complex challenges and discover new opportunities that transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries. By bringing together researchers, engineers, and technicians from across the institute, we create a collaborative environment that encourages the exchange of ideas and enhances our problem-solving capabilities. This dynamic synergy often leads to breakthroughs that would be difficult to achieve within the confines of a single department.

Nanofabrication

The subject of this core research area is the fabrication of novel types of crystalline thin films and nanostructures and the investigation of fundamental growth mechanisms. … read more

Nanoanalytics

The ongoing miniaturization in semiconductor technology calls for precise information on the structure and composition of low-dimensional systems and nanoscale devices. Accordingly, the central aim of this Core Research Area is to clarify the fundamental structure-property relation of these systems. … read more

Nanoelectronics

Semiconductor-based technology platforms for data communication, processing, and storage based on quantum phenomena are becoming increasingly more important. The CReA Nanoelectronics explores the quantum effects and quantum mechanical quantities necessary for technologies such as quantum computing, secure data communication, and artificial intelligence. … read more

III-V Nanowires for Optoelectronics

Semiconductor nanowires are structures with an extremely high aspect ratio and a diameter typically smaller than 100 nm. In bottom-up approaches, feature sizes down to 10 nm and below can be achieved without any lithography. Complementary top-down approaches offer higher level of control, in particular for the fabrication of regular nanowire arrays. The quasi-one-dimensional shape and the nanometric size of nanowires result in unique properties, often independently of the concrete nanowire material. Their characteristics make nanowires an exciting subject for fundamental studies and offer many conceptual advantages for various applications. … read more

Control of Elementary Excitations by Acoustic Fields

Solid state systems host a plethora of useful crystal excitations, e.g., electrons, holes, excitons, polaritons and magnons, to name a few. Future electronic and optoelectronic (quantum) devices will critically depend on the precise control (i.e., transport, tuning of the energy spectrum, etc.) of the aforementioned material excitations. The latter are very sensitive to the changes of the relative positions of atoms in the crystal lattice (i.e. the strain). Phonons, which are quanta of lattice vibrational modes, have been recognized as a useful source of dynamic strain. … read more

Intersubband Emitters: GaAs-based Quantum-Cascade Lasers

Quantum-cascade lasers based on the GaAs/(Al,Ga)As materials system are very useful radiation sources for many applications in the terahertz (THz) spectral region. This spectral region ranges typically from 0.1 to 10 THz bridging the electronics-based microwave region with the optics-based infrared region. … read more