Lancaster University is a member in a new international doctoral programme to speed the development of new quantum materials and devices for the semiconductor industry.

The EU-funded programme QUANTIMONY (“Innovative Training Network in Quantum Semiconductor Technologies Exploiting Antimony”) provides junior researchers with PhD positions in the field of semiconductor science and technology.

Lancaster University will train two early-stage researchers (ESRs) and a further four will come to Lancaster on secondment.

Professor Manus Hayne of the Physics Department at Lancaster University, and Head of the Supervisory Board for the project said, “QUANTIMONY brings together theoretical modelling, materials growth and characterisation, device fabrication and manufacturing, with the aims of developing a range of devices for different applications, seeding the foundations for their manufacture, and providing the highly-skilled people needed to make Europe an academic and industrial leader in antimonide semiconductors.

“It is very exciting, and the leading role that Lancaster and other UK participants are playing in this European-funded project sends a strong signal that we are open to collaboration with our continental neighbours.”

There is a wide spectrum of potential applications in the fields of electronics and optoelectronics for data computing and storage, telecommunications and quantum telecoms, energy harvesting and environmental monitoring, with consequent impact on transport, healthcare, aerospace, defence and security.

The new materials and devices will be exploited in optoelectronic applications such as lasers and detectors operating in the infrared spectral range as well as a third generation of solar cells.

The work in Lancaster will focus on novel telecoms-wavelength single photon LEDs and further developing its patented ULTRARAM™ memory technology.

Via QUANTIMONY, antimony (Sb) compound semiconductors will be able to be produced at volume in industrial reactors, for use in computer memories, telecommunications, automobiles, robotics and many other applications beyond those that are already served in aerospace and security.

QUANTIMONY includes eleven internationally renowned research teams as beneficiaries: seven universities, one research institute, two large corporations and one SME. It is supported by thirteen partner organizations, seven of which are industrial, three are large-scale research facilities and three are internationally leading academic groups. The combined consortium spans eleven countries: eight European, plus USA, Taiwan and Brazil.

QUANTIMONY is a European project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action.