News
January 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Kevin Vallejo on his paper, Tunable Mid-Infrared Interband Emission from Tensile-Strained InGaAs Quantum Dots, which has just been published in ACS Nano. This is the final paper to come out of Kevin’s PhD research, and it discusses how we can use tensile strain to increase the wavelength of light emitted by narrow band gap quantum dots by almost 2 µm, providing a highly tunable way to access the mid-infrared.
October 2022
A new paper, Advances in actinide thin films: synthesis, properties, and future directions, has just been published in Reports on Progress in Physics. The paper discusses our collaborative project with researchers at Idaho National Laboratory in which we are exploring opportunities to synthesize single-crystal thin films containing actinide elements such as uranium and thorium.
September 2022
Congratulations to Matthew Abramson and Hunter Coleman, two former undergraduate researchers from our group who just had their research published in the Journal of Crystal Growth. Written in collaboration with researchers at the University of Tennessee and UCLA, their paper is titled Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of quantum dot self-assembly. The paper describes their efforts to model the spontaneous formation of quantum dot nanostructure using a KMC model that they ran on the High Performance Computing facilities at Idaho National Lab. The fact that this research was carried out by two undergraduate students, really speaks to their talent and hard work. Congratulations Matthew and Hunter!
May 2022
We have two exciting new publications from our group! The first, titled “Electrochemically induced amorphous-to-rock-salt phase transformation in niobium oxide electrode for Li-ion batteries,” was published in Nature Materials. In this work led by Pete Barnes and Hui Claire Xiong, we discovered that the act of electrochemical cycling with lithium in amorphous nanostructured niobium oxide unexpectedly induces a transformation to a novel rock salt Nb2O5 anode material. The second, titled “Towards actinide heterostructure synthesis and science” discusses our collaboration with scientists at the Idaho National Laboratory where we are setting up a molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) system to grow single crystal actinide thin films such as uranium nitride. We intend to use this new MBE system to explore exotic quantum behaviors stemming from the strongly correlated physics we anticipate for these 5f electron materials. News stories about these publications can be found here and here.
December 2021
Congratulations to Kevin Vallejo on the publication of his most recent paper, titled “Tensile-strained self-assembly of InGaAs on InAs(111)A.” This article describes how Kevin used tensile-strained self-assembly to produce quantum dots from the narrow band gap semiconductor alloy InGaAs, in a bid to produce tunable light sources for infrared optoelectronic applications. Nice work Kevin!
October 2021
Huge congratulations to Kevin Vallejo upon successfully defending his PhD dissertation! Since joining the group, Kevin has worked on a wide range of projects from surface acoustic waves, submonolayer quantum dot infrared photodetectors, and narrow band gap tensile-strained quantum dots. Kevin is leaving us to take up the Heath Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship at Idaho National Laboratory where he will be bringing a brand new MBE system on line to grow some pretty exotic materials. Congratulations and very well done Dr. Vallejo!
June 2021
It was great fun to be interviewed about our research into quantum entanglement on NPR. Paul Simmonds spoke with Tom Michael during the Idaho Matters show on Boise State Public Radio. You can listen to our conversation on Boise State Public Radio.
May 2021
Congratulations to Katie on passing her PhD defense! After graduation, Katie will be leaving us to head to Chicago to start a postdoc at Argonne National Lab. Way to go Dr. Sautter! Come back and visit soon.
Congratulations also to Hunter Coleman on finishing his BS in Physics – well done indeed. We are excited to find out what your plans are next!
Additional congratulations are in order for Katie for winning a Boise State Graduating Student Leader award, and to Kevin Vallejo for winning a Graduate College Scholar – Dean’s Award. Amazing stuff everyone!
April 2021
Congratulations to Christopher Schuck on his most recent paper titled “Single-photon generation from self-
assembled GaAs/InAlAs(111)A quantum dots with ultra-small fine-structure splitting,” stemming from his PhD research in the CEN. Written with our collaborators at NIST and UCSB, this paper appears in the Journal of Physics: Photonics. In it we explore the quantum optical behavior of tensile-strained GaAs (111)A quantum dots. In particular, we demonstrate photon anti-bunching, confirm extremely low fine-structure splitting between the exciton bright states, and measure the Biexciton binding energy in the quantum dots for the first time. You can read more on the ACS Publication Website.
March 2021
Pi day shenanigans. Enjoy!
February 2021
Congratulations to Katie Sautter and Christopher Schuck on their joint first-authored paper in Crystal Growth and Design. This paper compares the self-assembly of Ge and GaAs tensile-strained quantum dots on InAlAs(111)A surfaces using combination of experimental techniques and computational modeling. You can read more on the ACS Publication Website.
January 2021
Kevin Vallejo just had a nice paper published in Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A on our collaboration with researchers at UCSB, Stanford, and UT Austin. This project focused on the structural and optical properties of PbSe deposited on InAs(111)A samples that Kevin grew here at Boise State. The paper was published in a special issue of the journal honoring the 85th birthday of Prof. Art Gossard and his amazing contributions to MBE over the years. You can read more on the AVS Website. Congratulations on a nice paper Kevin!
December 2020
Congratulations to former group member Carlos Cabrera on his recent publication in Advanced Energy Materials entitled “Reporting Device Performance of Emerging Photovoltaic Materials.” It is a progress report into some of the newest technologies for future solar cells. You can read more on the Wiley Online Library website.
May 2020
Super excited for Hunter Coleman who has been accepted into the 2020 Summer Program in Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Training for Modeling Physical Systems at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY. This program is funded by the National Science Foundation and will take place in June 2020.
May 2020
Congratulations to everyone in the CEN who graduated this year!! Trent Garret graduated with a BS in Physics, while Ariel Weltner and Kevin Saythavy both graduated with a BS in Materials Science and Engineering. Special mention goes to Ariel for being designated as an Undergraduate Research Scholar by the College of Engineering! We are sad to say goodbye to all three of them but are excited to see where their adventures take them next. Stay in touch! In addition, Kevin Vallejo received his MS in Materials Science and Engineering – great work Kevin!
May 2020
Well done to Ariel Weltner and Katie Sautter for both winning awards from the Micron School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSMSE). Ariel won the Bronco Spirit award, recognizing her role in building and sustaining community, and being a leader among her peers in MSMSE. Katie won the Graduate Teaching award, recognizing the enormous amount of work she put into being the TA for MSE 246 this spring.
March 2020
Huge congratulations to Trent Garrett on being awarded a fellowship through the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). The competition for these GRFP awards with thousands of applications each year from across the US. For Trent to be awarded one as an undergraduate student is very impressive. Trent’s GRFP award will pay for three years of his Ph.D. studies when he starts at UT Austin in Fall 2020. Well done Trent!
January 2020
Congratulations to Katie Sautter on the publication of her first lead-author paper,”Self-assembly of tensile-strained Ge quantum dots on InAlAs(111)A,” in the Journal of Crystal Growth! Katie’s paper describes the how to grow these novel Ge nanostructures, and demonstrates an extremely unusual transition between the well-known Stranski-Krastanov and Volmer-Weber growth modes for quantum dot self-assembly. Our work was supported by some beautiful microscopy from our collaborators at UCLA and Tufts. Great job Katie!
December 2019
Congratulations to Kevin Vallejo on being awarded a prestigious National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Graduate Fellowship through Pacific Northwest National Lab and the US Department of Energy. Kevin will spend one year working with the NNSA to gain hands-on experience in nuclear security and nonproliferation.
December 2019
Congratulations to Dr. Christopher Schuck on the publication of his most recent paper, “Anomalous Stranski-Krastanov growth of (111)-oriented quantum dots with tunable wetting layer thickness,” in Scientific Reports! Chris’s paper describes our discovery of an unusual modification to the well-known Stranski-Krastanov growth mode for quantum dot self-assembly. Using a combination of microscopy, spectroscopy and computational modeling we have shown that the wetting layer beneath the quantum dots continues to grow, even after the dots have started to form. Great work Chris!
November 2019
Congratulations to Kevin Vallejo for the publication of his first paper, “InAs(111)A homoepitaxy with molecular beam epitaxy,” in JVSTB! Kevin’s paper describes his efforts to optimize the MBE conditions in order to grow extremely smooth InAs with high optical quality on the somewhat unusual (111)A surface. The material that we are now able to grow will form the basis for several future research projects – watch this space!
September 2019
From September 22–25th, we were honored to host the 35th North American Molecular Beam Epitaxy (NAMBE) conference at the Limelight Hotel in Ketchum, ID. With attendees from across the US and around the world, this annual international conference brings together scientists and engineers from academia, industry and government labs who all use MBE as part of their research. We enjoyed great presentations, excellent company, and good food, and even the weather played ball! Katie, Kevin, Ariel and Trent should all be very proud of their presentations at the conference.
Special congratulations go to Trent for winning the NAMBE Outstanding Student Poster award for his poster titled “Nanostructure mapping of GaAs and Ge quantum dots on InAlAs(111)A using island scaling and radial distribution scaling analysis.” It is worth noting that I believe Trent and Ariel were the only undergraduates presenting at the conference, and so to beat all those graduate students and walk away with an award is a particularly impressive achievement. Well done Trent!
April 2019
On Monday April 22, 2019, Christopher Schuck successfully defended his PhD dissertation!!!! Chris was the first graduate student to join the CEN and we couldn’t be prouder of his achievements in the lab, from helping to set up the MBE equipment we use every day, to the interesting results his research on GaAs tensile-strained QDs has generated. We wish him all the very best in his future job at the University of Delaware. Huge congratulations Dr. Schuck. Stay in touch!
April 2019
Congratulations to Ariel, Kevin and Trent for their recent poster presentations at the Boise State Graduate Student Showcase and Undergraduate Research Conference. It was great to hear you talking to others about the excellent work you’re doing in the group!
March 2019
A recording of Christopher Schuck at this year’s Idaho state finals for the Three-Minute Thesis competition. An amazing achievement backed up by an amazing performance! Well done Chris!
March 2019
Huge congratulations to Trent Garrett for winning second place for his talk at the 10th Annual Pacific Northwest Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) Conference, held at the University of Washington in Seattle. In his talk, Trent discussed his research on scaling analysis in self-assembled quantum dot (QD) size distributions. An amazing achievement Trent!
January 2019
Time for some MBE maintenance! We’ve reached the end of our 1.5 year growth campaign and are giving our growth chamber some well-needed attention. Hopefully we’ll be growing again in a month or two.
December 2018
Congratulations to former group member Joseph Spinuzzi, who, together with Dr. Dmitri Tenne at Boise State, just had a paper on his research published in Science. Their work is discussed in an article entitled “Isostructural metal-insulator transition in VO2.” Joe and Dr. Tenne contributed cutting-edge Raman spectroscopy measurements that allowed them to understand this unusual phase transition.
November 2018
Congratulations to Ariel Weltner for winning a Higher Education Research Council (HERC) Fellowship to support her research in Spring 2019. The HERC Fellowship is a 10-week research experience offered to students by the Institute for STEM & Diversity Initiatives at Boise State. This fellowship gives students a $3,000 stipend, additional travel funds, and the opportunity to present at the 2017 Idaho Conference on Undergraduate Research (ICUR). In addition to her work on Hall effect measurements, Ariel will be starting a new project to explore electron transport in 1D quantum wires.
October 2018
Dr. Simmonds, Chris Schuck, Katie Sautter, and Kevin Vallejo enjoyed a productive and inspiring trip to the 34th North American Molecular Beam Epitaxy (NAMBE) conference held in Banff, Canada, a truly beautiful location! Chris’s talk was titled “(111)-oriented Stranski-Krastanov Quantum Dots Optimized for Entangled Photon Emission,” Katie’s talk was titled “Tensile-Strained Ge Quantum Dots on (111)A Surfaces,” and Kevin’s talk was titled “Acoustic Nanostructures for Charge Carrier Confinement in GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs Multiple Quantum Wells.” All three research presentations were excellent and generated interesting discussions and possible future collaborations!
In addition, Dr. Simmonds won the 2018 Young Investigator Award at the conference “for the development of growth techniques for non-(001) surfaces and novel self-assembled nanostructures.” Sponsored by the NAMBE Advisory Board, this award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the science and technology of MBE, or enabled by MBE, by the age of 40 and show promise of future leadership in the field. The award consists of a plaque and a check for $1,000. To join the list of eminent scientists who have won this award in previous years is a huge honor!
July 2018
Two CEN undergraduate researchers presented their work at Summer Research Community events at Boise State. Ariel Weltner presented a poster on doping calibration in III-V semiconductors at the 2018 Idaho Conference on Undergraduate Research (ICUR). Trent Garrett gave a talk on scaling analysis of self-assembled quantum dots at the Summer Research Symposium. Both presentations were of a very high standard, and underscore the excellent research both Ariel and Trent have been doing this year.
April 2018
We are extremely excited to announce a recent spate of awards to CEN members!
- Christopher Schuck – Honorary Award in the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition at Boise State University.
- Kevin Vallejo – Braslau Family Travel Award through the American Physical Society.
- Kevin Vallejo – Micron School of Materials Science & Engineering Award at the Boise State University Graduate Student Showcase.
- Trent Garrett – LSAMP Research Experience for Undergraduates (LSAMP REU) award.
- Trent Garrett – McNair Scholarship award.
We are so proud of all of these achievements. Keep up the amazing work!
March 2018
Congratulations to Christopher Schuck on publishing his first journal article!! His paper, titled “Self-assembly of (111)-oriented tensile-strained quantum dots by molecular beam epitaxy” describes the results of his experiments to understand how tensile-strained GaAs quantum dots self-assemble on InAlAs(111)A surfaces, and hence to identify the best conditions for growth. You can read the full article in the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B.
March 2018
Katie Sautter, Kevin Vallejo and Dr. Simmonds attended the APS March Meeting in Los Angeles. Katie presented a paper on her research at Boise State entitled “Tensile-Strained Germanium Quantum Dots on (111) Surfaces,” while Kevin’s talk “Reference Frame Dependence in Ontological Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics” discussed philosophical research he carried out during his undergraduate studies. Both talks were excellent. We also heard many inspiring talks on a wide range of topics in Physics and are inspired to get back into the lab!
February 2018
We had some very special visitors to the CEN this week: some three and four year-old future scientists from the Boise State Children’s Center (including Dr. Simmonds’ son Felix)! We looked around the lab and talked about what all the interesting things were, then we drew some pictures of the big machine, and finally we made a magnet fly using a superconductor and some liquid nitrogen. It was a lot of fun to have such young visitors in the lab.
February 2018
Congratulations to Katie Sautter for winning a travel award for $400 from ASBSU! Katie will use this money to partly fund her travel to the 2018 APS March Meeting in Los Angeles, where she will present a talk on her research into tensile-strained germanium quantum dots.
January 2018
Dr. Simmonds gave an invited talk at this year’s SPIE Photonics West conference, held in San Francisco. His talk, titled “Tensile-strained self-assembly of quantum dots for entangled photon sources and band-structure engineering” provided a summary of his research into tensile-strained self-assembly and its potential applications.
January 2018
Together with his Boise State collaborators Dr. Julianne Wenner (College of Education) and Dr. Megan Frary (College of Engineering/Graduate College), Dr. Simmonds gave a presentation entitled “P4: Physics and Preservice Teacher Partnership Project,” at the Great Ideas for Teaching and Learning Symposium. Their presentation discussed recent results from their ongoing study into interdisciplinary partnerships between MSE graduate students, physics and education undergraduates, and local elementary schools. This was a really great opportunity to exchange ideas with other instructors about ways we can make our teaching and classrooms more inclusive and hence effective for all students.
October 2017
Graduate student Christopher Schuck and Dr. Simmonds attended the 33rd North American Molecular Beam Epitaxy (NAMBE) conference in Galveston, TX. It was another great conference, but made even better by the fact that Chris won the NAMBE Outstanding Student Paper award for his talk, entitled “Self-assembly of (111)-oriented quantum dots tailored for entangled photon emission.” This is a great achievement and speaks to the quality of Chris’s research. Congratulations Chris!
September 2017
One of our newest members, Kevin Vallejo has an abstract accepted at the “What is a Physical Entity” colloquium, to be held at the Centre of Philosophy at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. Kevin’s paper discusses the application of frames of reference from relativistic physics to ways of thinking about the world. It is exciting to have members of the group whose intellectual pursuits cross disciplines.
September 2017
Dr. Simmonds’ most recent paper, entitled “Two Departments, Two Models of Interdisciplinary Peer Learning” is published in the Journal of College Science Teaching. The paper discusses an exciting new educational projects that Dr. Simmonds has developed in collaboration with Dr. Julianne Wenner in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Foundational Studies. These projects allow physics students the opportunity to expand their communication and teaching skills by working with students in the College of Education.
August 2017
As we start a new school year, we are excited to welcome some new people to the CEN. Katie Sautter joins us from Penn State University to pursue her MSE PhD, working on tensile-strained germanium nanostructures. Kevin Vallejo joins us from the University of Texas at El Paso, to pursue his MSE PhD, working on ultra-low band gap tensile-strained nanostructures. Kati Wada, a physics undergraduate also joins us, and her experience with Raman spectroscopy will be very helpful as we seek to broaden our optical characterization capabilities. Welcome everyone and have a great semester!
July 2017
We are pleased to report that we have received funding through the U.S. Department of Energy Laboratory Directed Research Development (LDRD) program for a project entitled “Exciton Delocalization and Exciton Coherence in Chromophores and Acoustic Nanostructures.” In collaboration with Dr. David Hurley (Idaho National Laboratory), and Drs. William Knowlton and Bernard Yurke (Boise State University), we will compare Frenkel exciton behavior in dye molecules with Wannier-Mott exciton behavior in semiconductor quantum well nanostructures. The CEN will mainly contribute to the second of these components, growing quantum well heterostructures to explore interactions between excitons and ultrahigh frequency surface acoustic waves.
July 2017
Joe Spinuzzi presented a poster at the 2017 Idaho Conference on Undergraduate Research (ICUR). Joe’s poster describes his work setting up a Hall effect measurement system in the CEN, and the calibration data set he obtained for a series of n-doped GaAs samples. Joe’s hard work will benefit the whole group in the future as we grow doped samples with very specific doping densities. After ICUR, Joe’s poster will be on display outside the CEN so come and take a look!
June 2017
Carlos Cabrera Perdomo, our recent visitor from Mexico, has just published an interesting paper on graphene/h-BN heterostructures. His model shows that by carefully controlling the doping and structure of these 2D superlattices it is possible to greatly enhance the resonant tunneling current. Congratulations Carlos!
March 2017
Dr. Simmonds attends the American Physical Society March Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, to chair session C36: Electronic and Transport Phenomena of Nanostructures II, and give two talks: Physics & Preservice Teachers Partnership Project (P4): An interdisciplinary peer learning tool and Bulk InAlAs(111)A as a novel material system for pure, single photon emission. The APS March meeting is one of the largest annual meetings, bringing together nearly 10,000 scientists from all over the world to share groundbreaking research from industry, universities, and major labs.
December 2016
Dr. Simmonds’ most recent paper, entitled “Review Article: Molecular beam epitaxy of lattice-matched InAlAs and InGaAs layers on InP (111)A, (111)B, and (110)” is published in the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B. The paper reviews the state of the art for growing these materials, and presents strategies for optimizing their properties based on our experiments. You can read Dr. Simmonds article here.
November 2016
Joe Spinuzzi receives a Higher Education Research Council (HERC) Fellowship to support his work in the CEN during the Spring 2017 semester. The HERC Fellowship is a paid, 10-week research experience offered to students by the Institute for STEM & Diversity Initiatives at Boise State. This fellowship gives students a $3,000 stipend, additional travel funds, and the opportunity to present at the 2017 Idaho Conference on Undergraduate Research (ICUR). Joe will be performing material characterization, for example Hall and x-ray diffraction measurements, to help us understand the materials we have grown.
October 2016
Dr. Simmonds receives a funding from the Air Force of Office of Scientific Research! In collaboration with Dr. Christian Ratsch (UCLA) and Dr. Michael Scheibner (UC Merced), the award will fund a three year research project that focuses on using tensile strain to transform germanium into a direct band gap semiconductor.
September 2016
Dr. Simmonds’ most recent paper, entitled “Bulk AlInAs on InP(111) as a novel material system for pure single photon emission” is published in the journal Optics Express. The paper describes how nanoclusters that form spontaneously during the growth of certain semiconductor materials can be used to generate single photons on demand. You can read the full article “Bulk AlInAs on InP(111) as a novel material system for pure single photon emission” here.
August 2016
Dr. Simmonds received a kind acknowledgement in a recent paper in Applied Physics Express, written by Bor-Chau Juang et al. at UCLA. The paper is entitled “Characterization of GaSb photodiode for gamma-ray detection” and you can read the full article here.
July 2016
Congratulations to Robin McCown who has just been awarded a prestigious Chateaubriand Fellowship! This Fellowship will allow her to travel to France and work on low band gap semiconductors in the group of Prof. Eric Tournié at the University of Montpellier. The Chateaubriand Fellowship in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics & Health aims to initiate or reinforce collaborations, partnerships or joint projects between French and American research teams, and supports PhD students registered in an American university who wish to conduct part of their doctoral research in a French laboratory.
July 2016
Dr. Simmonds’ recent book chapter in the “Handbook of Measurement in Science and Engineering” is highlighted in Boise State University’s “Update“. Dr. Simmonds’ chapter covers the rather broad topic of “Nanomaterials Properties” and looks at how the behavior of many common materials can change dramatically as their size is reduced to the nanoscale. Excitingly, Dr. Byung Kim from Physics also has a chapter in this book, describing some of his very nice magnetic measurement techniques.
May 2016
Congratulations to Kenton Burns on receiving his B.S. in Physics at Spring Commencement! Kent will be starting his Ph.D. studies at the University of Arkansas in the Fall. We will be very sad to see him go, but are excited for him at this next stage in his career.
April 2016
Dr. Simmonds and our research in CEN is highlighted in the Boise State University “Change Agents” advertising campaign featured in the Chronicle for Higher Education.
April 2016
Robin McCown and Chris Schuck take part in the inaugural “3 Minute Thesis” competition at Boise State, giving a summary of their research to a mainstream audience in just three minutes! This is definitely a challenging task and they both did a brilliant job. It was a great event and really exciting to get a snapshot of some of the amazing research being done at Boise State in Musicology, Geology, Fine Arts and Materials Science to name just a few.
March 2016
In celebration of Pi Day, Dr. Simmonds “wins” the annual Pie-a-Professor competition to raise money for the MSE Student Club at Boise State. Dr Müllner (MSE Chair) was kind enough to present this great honor of a cream pie to the face.
January 2016
Dr. Simmonds receives a Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation! The award will fund a five year research project that focuses on using self-assembled quantum dot nanostructures to generate quantum-entangled photons.
September 2015
Dr. Simmonds visits Brigham Young University to give an invited talk entitled “Tensile strained nanostructures for advanced optoelectronics and band engineering” at the Physics department colloquium.
October 2015
Dr. Simmonds attends the North American Molecular Beam Epitaxy (NAMBE) conference in Mexico. This conference is a great opportunity to learn about the latest research in the field, and Dr. Simmonds presents a paper discussing the emission of photons with low fine-structure splitting from tensile-strained quantum dots on (111)-oriented surfaces. This project was carried out in collaboration with groups at Yale University, UCLA, and the University of Würzburg.
March 2015
Dr. Simmonds attends the American Physical Society March Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, to chair session F13 Quantum Dots, Wires And Wells: Electronic Phenomena. The APS March meeting is one of the largest annual meetings, bringing together nearly 10,000 scientists from all over the world to share groundbreaking research from industry, universities, and major labs.
February 2015
The CEN gets a nice write up in Boise State University UPDATE. The article describes some of Dr. Simmonds research interests and aims, and the technique of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) that the group uses to synthesize their novel nanomaterials.
You can read the full article here: Improving energy efficiency one atom at a time.