Research line: Nanostructures, surfaces and coatings.

Study of materials and surfaces for high-power RF in Space missions funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness. The research also comprises coatings and silicene nanostructures by STM and synchrotron light and the analysis by roughness nanoengineering. In addition, highly scaled n-FET devices are being developed through a «Beyond CMOS» approximation, based on the heterogeneous integration of epitaxial III-V/high-k nanostructures on Si substrates.

Goals:

The research goals of our group comprise three complementary fields:

• Growth of materials and surface nanostructuring.
• Characterization by microscopies and spectroscopies in ultra-high vacuum including synchrotron light
• Development of theoretical models and technological applications.

We research on low-secondary electron emission (SEY) nanostructured coatings to prevent multipactor effect which limits the power attainable in high power RF devices for space missions, such as communication satellites. Special attention is paid on innovation and technological transference through the collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and other important companies in Europe.

The research includes nanostructured systems such as silicene and silicon nanowires on metal substrates investigated by spectroscopies including synchrotron light and scanning probe microscopies. For terrestrial communication applications our group cooperates with INTEL, the main objective being to develop novel molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) procedures based on the lateral overgrowth techniques. These procedures allow us to improve the structural and electrical properties of high-k/III-V devices fabricated using III-V materials grown on suitable substrates for Si-based CMOS technology. Finally, the modeling of processes involved in film growth and nanostructuring play a key role on addressing experimental results.

As a consequence of the complementary and well balanced research team, this group participates in technological and fundamental research project competitions. It is expected to obtain funding from the European Space Agency (two projects in progress, 2017), National Plan R&D (two projects in progress, 2017), international companies contracts (five contracts in progress, 2017).