Meet the team

Nemanich's research group has applied advanced microscopy and spectroscopy techniques to characterize the growth and properties of thin film interfaces and nanostructures.

Franz Alexander Koeck received his M.S. in Physics in 2003 from North Carolina State University where he started working on the diamond as electronic material. His expertise lies in the development of plasma chemical vapor deposition systems for electronic grade diamond and the characterization of the material and related devices. For the ULTRA project, he is involved in studying the growth of doped (phosphorus, boron) diamond.

Ali Ebadi Yekta is currently a Ph.D. student at Arizona State University. He received M.S. degree in Solid-State physics from Kharazmi University, Iran. His current research in ULTRA involves impact ionization measurement in diamond detectors and the growth of the boron nitride thin films to investigate the interface physics between boron nitride and diamond.

Parker Ralph Steenblik is a second year PhD student at Arizona State University. He graduated from Brigham Young University with a BS in Physics and a Minor in Computer Science. His undergraduate research experience includes deriving thermophysical properties of molten salts from simulation and using Deep Learning to advance and more accurately predict these properties. Molten salts are used in nuclear reactors and now he does research on materials physics to make high power electronic devices that could be used in our power grid. He is specifically interested in the contacts and interfaces between cubic boron nitride and various metals and dielectrics.

Gabriel Munro-Ludders is currently a doctoral candidate in the Department of Physics at Arizona State University, where he works in the Nano Science Laboratory. He received a dual B.S. degree in Physics and Math from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a M.S. in Physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His past research includes correlating thin film morphology to growth conditions in magnetron sputtering from Monte Carlo simulations. His current research focuses on measuring interface properties of n-type diamond and nanoCarbon with photoemission. His focus in ULTRA is characterizing the properties of nanoCarbon related to its use as an ohmic contact strategy for phosphorus-doped diamond.