Colin Wolden
Professor
BS University of Minnesota
MS MIT School of Chemical Engineering Practice
PhD MIT

Synthesis and processing of electronic materials, surface and gas-phase kinetics, and reactor modeling

Research Description
Wolden Research Group Page
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Research Description
Our research interests are directed at both synthesizing new electronic materials and developing novel processing techniques. Materials of interest include transparent conducting oxides (TCOs), wide bandgap semiconductors for photovoltaic applications, and advanced polymers. Primary deposition techniques for these thin film materials are thermal and plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. Investigation of thermal CVD is guided by detailed reactive flow modeling and experimental measures of both gas-phase and surface kinetics. PECVD is a more complex phenomena, and we take a semi-empirical approach using statistically designed experiments. In both cases in-situ process diagnostics and ex-situ materials characterization are used to develop fundamental models that yield process-structure-performance relationships. Process diagnostics include mass spectrometry, optical emission spectroscopy (OES), and optical reflectometry/transmission. Routine characterization techniques include:

• Electrical Properties: C-V, I-V, 4 point probe, Hall effect, photovoltaic performance
• Optical Properties: Variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry (VASE), UV-VIS-IR spectrophotometry
• Structural Properties: X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
• Film Composition: X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS)

Contact Information
Colin Wolden
423 Alderson Hall
Chemical Engineering Department
Colorado School of Mines
Golden, CO 80401
Office: (303) 273-3544
FAX: (303) 273-3730
cwolden@mines.edu