The Faculty of Physics is part of the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), which has approximately 30,000 students. The research in the physics faculty is strongly supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG), which includes four Collaborative Research Centers and two Research Training Groups. In the DFG-Funding Ranking 2006 the Faculty of Physics at the University of Duisburg-Essen occupies 6th position among the physics faculties in Germany. Furthermore, members of the faculty participate in several EU-networks (partly as coordinators), in research programmes of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and various others. In recent years funds amounting to a total of approximately 5 million Euros a year have been raised from external sources.

The group at UDE has broad expertise in studies of transport phenomena in semiconductor nanostructures, concerning quantum transport and semiclassical transport as well as ballistic transport. Of particular relevance for this project is the know-how for optimising and measuring of two-dimensional systems. Broad expertise exists also in patterning two-dimensional systems by etching and defining nanoscopic gates down to few 10 nm using electron beam lithography (EBL). Important facilities available at UDE are: two SEMs with EBL; one focused ion beam (FIB) with EBL, ion beam lithography (IBL) and a STEM detector; and two helium bath cryostats (250 mK … 370 K) with superconducting magnets (up to 13 T). Project partner UDE also has profound experience in transport measurements (including capacitance-voltage spectroscopy) on self-assembled QDs and the interaction between these QDs and a two-dimensional electron gas.

Dr. M. Geller received his PhD in 2007 at the TU Berlin, where he co-proposed and patent a QD memory concept. He studied the storage time, carrier capture/emission and the localization energy in different QD material systems, including InAs/GaAs, InGaAs/GaAs with additional AlGaAs barriers and type-II GaSb/GaAs QDs. His experience in transport measurements includes capacitance-voltage, deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) and studying the interaction between QDs and two-dimensional systems. He is author and co-author of 35 scientific papers and conference proceedings and gave 8 invited talks at international conferences and workshops. He is also author of two book chapters on “Quantum dots for memories”. As a PhD student Dr. M. Geller already gained experience with two EC funded research projects: He coordinated the “Transport task force” within the NoE “SANDiE” and the workpackage “Principles of memory and logic devices” within a STREP called NANOMAT.

Prof. Dr. A. Lorke received his PhD in Experimental Physics in from the LMU Munich 1991 and since 2000 has been a Full Professor for Experimental Physics at the University of Duisburg-Essen. His work focuses on the electronic and optical properties of nanostructures and low-dimensional semiconductors. He has made essential contributions to the understanding of non-linear transport in nanostructured, low-dimensional electron gases. The invention of the ballistic rectifier was one of the first demonstrations of a device, whose function is directly given by its (lithographically defined) shape. Starting in 2004 he has been coordinator of the Collaborative Research Centre "Nanoparticles from the Gas Phase", funded by the German Research Foundation. He is co-founder and presently Director of the "Center for NanoIntegration Duisburg-Essen" (CeNIDE), which represents about 35 research groups working in the nanosciences with a total of about 200 scientists. He is author and co-author of 4 patents and 125 refereed publications with a total of about 4000 citations.

B. Marquardt has experiences in fabrication and investigation (i.e. time-resolved conductance measurements, capacitance-voltage spectroscopy) of weakly-coupled GaAs/AlGaAs based QD/2D electron systems. Furthermore, he has investigated the influence of charged self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dots on spatial constricted 1D electron channels.