Lancaster University is the leading University in the North West of England. Its Physics Department was ranked 1st in the UK in the recent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), whilst 92% of the research across the entire campus was categorised as world-leading or internationally significant.

Lancaster’s contribution to the project will come from the Optoelectronics and Nanostructures Group, which has an established track-record for ground-breaking work on mid-infrared optoelectronics using liquid phase epitaxy, producing the first room-temperature mid-infrared InAsSb quantum dot LEDs and novel InGaAsSbP pentanary alloys. We developed the first mid-infrared whispering-gallery LEDs and lasers and produced efficient 4.2 µm MQW LEDs operating at 300 K. A substantial expansion in the group in recent years has led to the appointment of three new members of staff and the development of new facilities following substantial capital investment. Current facilities include: a VG V80H MBE system equipped with As and Sb valved cracker cells and a N plasma cell; a Sirion field-emission-gun scanning electron microscope (FEG-SEM) with Raith e-beam lithography facility and EDAX; Bede QC 200 high resolution X-ray diffraction rocking apparatus; a class 100 clean room facility with photolithographic processing, metallisation and deposition apparatus together with associated reactive ion etching system and Hall effect kit; a range of scanning probe microscopes featuring atomic-force microscopy, ultrasonic force microscopy and capacitance spectroscopy; photoluminescence spectroscopy from 1.5 to 400 K in magnetic fields up to 17 T. A second MBE machine donated by the company CIP is in the process of being commissioned. Present research interests in the group cover a range of topics in mid-infrared optoelectronics, optical properties of semiconductor nanostructures and self-assembled quantum dots and advanced scanning probe microscopy. The group has an excellent record of national and international collaboration with both academia and industry, and has particularly strong links with QinetiQ, CIP and Oclaro.

Dr. M. Hayne is a leading expert in the physics of semiconductor nanostructures in magnetic fields (=50 T). He has investigated the transport properties of high-mobility two-dimensional electron gases and the magneto-optical properties of GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells, InP/GaInP2 quantum dots (QDs), InAs/GaAs QDs, GaSb/GaAs QDs, GaAs/AlGaAs QDs, InAs/InP QDs, InP/GaAs QDs, InAs/InP quantum wires and Si nanocrystals in SiO2. He was appointed as a Lecturer and UK Research Councils Academic Fellow in Experimental Nanoscience at Lancaster’s Physics Department in June 2006.

Dr. O. V. Kolosov has expertise in scanning probe microscopy of materials and devices. He pioneered UFM for mapping the properties of compound semiconductors on the nanoscale. He has worked extensively with industry and was recently Director of Innovation at Symyx Technologies Inc., USA. He was appointed as a Reader in Experimental Condensed Matter Physics at Lancaster in December 2006.

Dr. R. Young spent six years at Toshiba Research Europe in Cambridge where he did World-leading work on single and entangled photon emitters and demonstrated an optically-excited single-electron spin QD memory. Prior to coming to Lancaster he was at the Tyndall National Institute in Cork, Ireland.

Dr. Q. D. Zhuang is a specialist in MBE growth of a variety of III-V compound semiconductors, including InGaAs/GaAs, InGaAs/InP, GaSb/GaAs and InSb/InAs QDs. Before joining Lancaster, Dr Zhuang worked at the U. Glasgow on the MBE growth of dilute nitrides and applications for vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers.