UCSB Nanofabrication Facility — Research Groups & Publications
A curated directory of research groups utilizing the UCSB Nanofab, organized by discipline. Each section highlights recent high-impact publications and representative research imagery.
Leads research on heterogeneous integration of III-V materials on silicon for lasers, amplifiers, and modulators, as well as advanced silicon photonic platforms for datacom, telecom, and ultra-narrow-linewidth laser sources.
Selected Recent Publications:
Roadmapping the next generation of silicon photonics — Nature Communications 15, 751 (2024). DOI
Lithium niobate photonics: Unlocking the electromagnetic spectrum — Science 379(6627) (2023). DOI
Specializes in III-V photonic integrated circuits for free-space optical communications, LiDAR, microwave photonics, and monolithic integration of III-V quantum dot lasers on silicon via selective area heteroepitaxy.
Selected Recent Publications:
Selective area heteroepitaxy of low dislocation density antiphase boundary free GaAs microridges on flat-bottom (001) Si for integrated silicon photonics — Applied Physics Letters 118, 122106 (2021). DOI
Towards fully monolithic silicon-based integrated photonics: MOCVD grown lasers on silicon by blanket and selective area heteroepitaxy — Proc. SPIE (Photonics West, 2022). DOI
Develops energy-efficient optical interconnects for data centers, with emphasis on analog coherent detection architectures that eliminate power-hungry DSP, leveraging silicon photonics and co-packaged optics.
Selected Recent Publications:
A Monolithic O-Band Coherent Optical Receiver for Energy-Efficient Links — IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits 59(5) (2024). DOI
Analog Coherent Detection for Energy Efficient Intra-Data Center Links at 200 Gbps Per Wavelength — Journal of Lightwave Technology 39(2) (2021). DOI
Investigates light-matter interactions at the nanoscale, designing dielectric and semiconductor metasurfaces for directional light emission, magneto-optical traps, and active reconfigurable photonic devices.
Selected Recent Publications:
High efficiency large-angle polarization-insensitive retroreflecting metasurface for magneto-optical traps — Applied Physics Letters 124, 251704 (2024). DOI
Optimizing Polarization Selective Unidirectional Photoluminescence from Phased-Array Metasurfaces — Advanced Optical Materials (2024). DOI
Quantum optics, entangled photon sources, NV-center sensing, topological qubits, and correlated electron systems — building the hardware foundations for quantum information science.
Quantum Optics & Quantum Information Group — Prof. Dirk Bouwmeester
Explores quantum optics and cavity quantum electrodynamics with semiconductor quantum dots, optomechanical systems using phononic crystal membranes, and quantum decoherence phenomena.
Selected Recent Publications:
Single-emitter quantum key distribution over 175 km of fibre with optimised finite key rates — Nature Communications 14, 3573 (2023). DOI
Phononically shielded multi-wavelength photonic-crystal membrane for cavity quantum optomechanics — Optics Express 33(4), 8203 (2025). DOI
Develops integrated quantum photonic devices on chip-scale platforms, including entangled photon-pair sources from microring resonators, 2D material quantum emitters, and scalable single-photon technologies for quantum networking.
Selected Recent Publications:
2022 Roadmap on integrated quantum photonics — Journal of Physics: Photonics 4, 012501 (2022). DOI
Defect and strain engineering of monolayer WSe2 enables site-controlled single-photon emission up to 150 K — Nature Communications 12, 3585 (2021). DOI
Engineers nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond for ultra-sensitive nanoscale magnetometry and quantum sensing. Recent breakthroughs leverage many-body quantum dynamics for signal amplification in solid-state quantum sensors.
Selected Recent Publications:
Signal amplification in a solid-state sensor through asymmetric many-body echo — Nature 646, 68–73 (2025). DOI
Scalable nanoscale positioning of highly coherent color centers in prefabricated diamond nanostructures — Nature Communications 16 (2025). DOI
Grows quantum materials by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), including III-V semiconductor heterostructures, Heusler compounds, and superconductor/semiconductor hybrids for topological quantum computing and superconducting circuits.
Selected Recent Publications:
Cryogenic Growth of Tantalum Thin Films for Low-Loss Superconducting Circuits — Physical Review Applied 23(3), 034025 (2025). DOI
Fabrication and Characterization of Low-Loss Al/Si/Al Parallel Plate Capacitors for Superconducting Quantum Information Applications — npj Quantum Information 11 (2025). DOI
Investigates correlated electronic phases in van der Waals heterostructures, including superconductivity, magnetism, and quantum Hall physics in graphene-based systems using nanofabrication and low-temperature transport measurements.
Selected Recent Publications:
Superconductivity in rhombohedral trilayer graphene — Nature 598, 434–438 (2021). DOI
Isospin magnetism and spin-polarized superconductivity in Bernal bilayer graphene — Science 375(6582) (2022). DOI
Sub-THz transistors, 2D-material nanoelectronics, and advanced CMOS architectures — driving the next generation of wireless communications and computing.
Develops InP heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) integrated circuits and transceiver modules operating at 100–300 GHz for next-generation sub-THz wireless communication systems with multi-Gbps data rates.
Selected Recent Publications:
100–300 GHz Wireless: Transistors, ICs, and Systems — IEEE Microwave Magazine (2025). DOI
A 280 GHz InP HBT Direct-Conversion Receiver with 10.8 dB NF — IEEE RFIC Symposium (2023). DOI
Pioneers 2D material-based transistor architectures for future CMOS scaling, including 3D transistors with 2D semiconductors, neuromorphic computing platforms using tunnel-FETs, and cryogenic CMOS for quantum computing.
Selected Recent Publications:
Three-dimensional Transistors with Two-dimensional Semiconductors for Future CMOS Scaling — Nature Electronics (2024). DOI
An Ultra Energy-efficient Hardware Platform for Neuromorphic Computing Enabled by 2D-TMD Tunnel-FETs — Nature Communications (2024). DOI
GaN and Ga2O3 devices for solid-state lighting, micro-LEDs, laser diodes, and high-voltage power conversion — from Nobel Prize-winning blue LEDs to next-generation ultra-wide-bandgap power electronics.
Krishnamoorthy Research Group — Prof. Sriram Krishnamoorthy
Advances ultra-wide-bandgap semiconductor device technology, particularly β-Ga2O3 power electronics including kilovolt-class MOSFETs and Schottky barrier diodes grown by MOCVD for high-voltage, high-efficiency power conversion.
Selected Recent Publications:
Kilovolt-Class β-Ga2O3 MOSFETs on 1-inch Bulk Substrates — Applied Physics Letters (2024). DOI
2.1 kV (001)-β-Ga2O3 Vertical Schottky Barrier Diode with High-k Oxide Field Plate — Applied Physics Letters (2023). DOI
Leads development of III-nitride (InGaN/GaN) optoelectronic devices including micro-LEDs scaled to the single-micron regime for AR/VR displays, edge-emitting laser diodes, and advanced LED architectures with metasurface and distributed Bragg reflector integration.
Selected Recent Publications:
High External Quantum Efficiency in Ultra-small Amber InGaN MicroLEDs Scaled to 1 μm — Applied Physics Letters (2024). DOI
Metasurface Light-Emitting Diodes with Directional and Focused Emission — Nano Letters (2023). DOI
Investigates quantum materials including functional and correlated complex oxides and topological semimetals, with emphasis on thin-film epitaxial growth (MBE), quantum transport, and electronic structure engineering at heterostructure interfaces.
Selected Recent Publications:
Two-Dimensional Topological Insulator State in Cadmium Arsenide Thin Films — Physical Review Letters 130, 046201 (2023). DOI
Similarity in the Critical Thicknesses for Superconductivity and Ferroelectricity in Strained SrTiO3 Films — Applied Physics Letters (2022). DOI
Develops novel memristive (resistive switching) devices and hybrid CMOS/memristor circuits for neuromorphic computing, in-memory computing, and hardware accelerators for neural networks and optimization problems.
Selected Recent Publications:
Recent Advances and Future Prospects for Memristive Materials, Devices, and Systems — ACS Nano (2023). DOI
Works on plasma science and engineering (atmospheric and non-thermal plasmas), catalysis in molten metals for methane pyrolysis and hydrogen production, and nanoscale fabrication including colloidal lithography and micro-LED characterization.
Selected Recent Publications:
AC Plasmas Directly Excited in Liquid-Phase Hydrocarbons for H2 and Unsaturated C2 Hydrocarbon Production — Journal of the American Chemical Society 147(1) (2025). DOI
Dry Reforming of Methane Catalysed by Molten Metal Alloys — Nature Catalysis 3, 83–89 (2020). DOI
Nanofluidic transport, lab-on-chip biosensors, and microfabricated biomedical devices — bridging nanofabrication with biological and chemical applications.
Studies electrokinetic transport in nanofluidic channels, ionic current rectification in bipolar nanochannels, and the design of nanofluidic diodes and biosensors, combining experimental micro/nanofabrication with computational modeling.
Selected Recent Publications:
Coupling Charge-Regulated Interfacial Chemistry to Electrokinetic Ion Transport in Bipolar SiO2–Al2O3 Nanofluidic Diodes — Advanced Materials Interfaces (2024). DOI
Nanofluidic Diodes Based on Asymmetric Bio-Inspired Surface Coatings in Straight Glass Nanochannels — Faraday Discussions (2023). DOI
Pioneers Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) — superconducting photon-counting sensors with zero read noise that measure each photon's energy, arrival time, and position. Deploys MKID-based cameras (MEC, XKID) at major telescopes for direct imaging of exoplanets.
Selected Recent Publications:
Characterization of Photon Arrival Timing Jitter in Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector Arrays — Applied Physics Letters (2024). DOI
Characterizing the Dark Count Rate of a Large-Format MKID Array — Optics Express 31(6), 10775 (2023). DOI
