Kinetics and Reaction Engineering of Vapor Phase Materials Synthesis Laboratory

Director: Mark T. Swihart

Research in the Kinetics and Reaction Engineering of Vapor Phase Materials Synthesis Laboratory focuses on developing fundamental kinetic and mechanistic understanding of the vapor phase synthesis (chemical vapor deposition) of thin films and nanoparticles of inorganic materials. This understanding is important for the improvement of processes used in microelectronics manufacturing, and for commercialization of new technologies, such as high-quality diamond CVD and silicon nanoparticle synthesis.

The kinetics of elementary reactions are investigated both experimentally and using modern computational chemistry techniques. This information is used to construct detailed models of film and particle nucleation and growth. The long-term goals of this work are the predictive modeling of real reactor systems and the ability to connect final product properties to reactor operating conditions.