Tyndall researcher Dr. Christopher Broderick is awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship to join the Materials Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Global Fellowships enhance European research excellence and expertise, acting as a vehicle for advanced transfer of knowledge between the EU and other countries. Global Fellowships enable EU-based early-career researchers to undertake advanced training through research where they are hosted by a non-EU research institution before reintegration to their home institution.
Tyndall is delighted to announce that Dr. Christopher Broderick, a newly-appointed Staff Researcher (Senior Researcher) with the Irish Photonic Integration Centre (IPIC), Tyndall, UCC, a recent holder of the National University of Ireland Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Sciences, and one of five young scientists chosen to represent Ireland at the 2019 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, has been awarded a prestigious MSCA Global Fellowship in the highly competitive 2020 call. The two-year outgoing phase of the three-year Fellowship will commence in late-2021 at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), where Dr. Broderick will work under the supervision of Prof. Chris Van de Walle, Herbert Kroemer Distinguished Professor with the UCSB Materials Department. Prof. Van de Walle is a world-leading researcher in theoretical and computational materials physics, and in 2019 was named on the Thomson-Reuters (Clarivative Analytics) Highly-Cited Researchers list, which recognises researchers whose published work is in the top 1% by citations in their field.
Staff Researcher (Senior Researcher),
Irish Photonic Integration Centre (IPIC),
Tyndall National Institute.
Dr. Broderick’s “SATORI” project centres on so-called “crystal phase engineering” – manipulation of the electronic and optical properties of semiconductor materials by controlled alteration of their crystal structure (or “phase”) on the atomic scale. Conventional semiconductor materials such as silicon and gallium arsenide which respectively lie at the heart of the electronic devices that power our computers and smartphones, and the photonic devices that constitute the backbone of the internet – crystallise in a structure having cubic symmetry. Recent advancements in materials growth have made it possible to reproducibly fabricate these materials in an unconventional hexagonal crystal phase. Changing the crystal structure of a material can radically alter its properties. For example, carbon in its stable cubic structure is diamond, one of the hardest naturally-occurring materials, while carbon in its layered hexagonal structure is soft, flakey graphite. For semiconductors, the ability to tailor the material properties via crystal phase engineering opens up exciting new opportunities for applications in advanced electronic and photonic devices.
The aim of the project is to identify new materials and nanostructures for applications in hybrid electronic-photonic circuits: identifying novel pathways to supplement existing silicon microelectronic chip technology with the excellent photonic properties of compound semiconductors, thereby informing the ongoing global effort to develop high-speed, low-loss hybrid electronic-photonic chips that circumvent the intrinsic limitations being reached as conventional microelectronic technology approaches the end of Moore’s law. At UCSB, Dr. Broderick will apply and develop state-of-the-art theoretical and computational approaches to predict the electronic and optical properties of the hexagonal crystal phases of semiconductor materials. Central to these investigations will be the development of a detailed understanding of the nature of the absorption and emission of light in these materials, and how these optical properties can be tailored in the hexagonal phase to overcome the limitations experienced by the conventional cubic phases of several key semiconductor materials employed in existing technologies. On the basis of these investigations, Dr. Broderick will establish a suite of theoretical models and software to allow accurate simulations of the properties of nanostructures for device applications, providing insights and simulation tools to guide the large global community of academic and industrial researchers active in semiconductor materials research.
Commenting on the award, Dr. Broderick said:
“In looking to take the next step in my research career I was keen to combine opportunities for my own technical and professional development with international network building. The MSCA Global Fellowship offers an excellent platform to achieve these aims. I designed the SATORI project, with Prof. Van de Walle’s feedback, to exploit the natural confluence of my own scientific interests and his technical expertise. The project provides broad opportunities for my own technical development while addressing a rich, fundamental issue in materials physics with a high degree of technological relevance. The emergence of crystal phase engineering as a new paradigm in semiconductor materials raises many questions that require detailed theoretical insight and new simulation tools to underpin and inform progress towards device applications. As a theorist I am strongly motivated by problems of this nature, which combine fundamental physics with material properties relevant to real-world applications, and I look forward to addressing these challenges. From an early stage in my doctoral studies, I have been aware of the highly influential work of Prof. Van de Walle and his group at UCSB. I am excited to have been given the chance to join Prof. Van de Walle’s group, and am looking forward to a productive two-year stay in California.”
Dr. Broderick’s Supervisor, Tyndall’s Chief Scientific Officer Prof. Eoin O’Reilly said:
“When Chris and I first discussed his applying for an Individual Fellowship, we quickly identified that Prof. Van de Walle’s group would provide the perfect opportunity for Chris to further develop his expertise and vision, by working with an outstanding group with complementary interests in one of the top materials departments in the world. Having identified his goal, Chris then planned his application very thoroughly. He made early contact with Prof. Van de Walle to discuss and agree his plans, and then ensured that his proposal had several rounds of feedback before submission. Chris can be very proud that his proposal was one of the very top ranked proposals across Europe in this highly competitive funding call. I am delighted with the opportunity that the award offers both to Chris and to Tyndall for future collaboration and research impact.”
Dr. Louise Burgoyne, EU Programmes Manager said:
“Chris is the perfect expression of a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow. He has a deep passion for his work, and an ambition to make a real difference in the world by addressing technological and socioeconomic challenges through scientific advancement in theoretical materials physics. The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship Programme is of great importance for early career researchers around the globe, and for Europe’s talent pipeline. We are delighted to see Chris’s success in securing this prestigious award.”
Dr. Martin O’Connell, EU Programmes Manager with the Irish Photonic Integration Centre (IPIC), also welcomed the award, stating:
“While the award aligns with all of our strategic goals, the fact that these awards are highly respected and hotly contested especially strengthens our research excellence as we develop and support the research leaders of the future towards other prestigious grants.”
If you have the ambition to be a leader in your field, working to solve world societal challenges in one of Europe’s leading institutes in Information and Communications Technology (ICT), R&D and deep-tech innovation, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship at Tyndall may be for you. To find out more, contact Dr. Louise Burgoyne (Micro & Nano Systems) or Dr. Martin O'Connell (Photonics).