Professor enjoys opportunity for collaboration with students, fellow faculty

As a new member of CNSE's esteemed faculty, Alain Diebold, Empire Innovation Professor of Nanoscale Science at CNSE, looks forward to the opportunities for collaboration and interaction available here. He's already experienced this, sometimes in unexpected but positive ways.

"I attended one of CNSE's Open Houses a few weeks ago," says Professor Diebold. "A prospective student and his father came up to me, and I was chatting with them. At one point, the father told me that his son had attended a similar event" at a competing graduate school.

"He told me, 'All the students there complained that they can never get any time with the faculty,'" says Diebold. The father marveled that at CNSE, in contrast, not only was a professor taking the time to talk to him, but was doing so outside the classroom - and on the weekend!

Professor Diebold assured the parent that CNSE faculty do indeed work side by side with their students, providing a level of interaction and collaboration that other schools only dream of.

Diebold notes that the opportunity for collaboration with fellow faculty at CNSE is just as abundant and rewarding. "I am extremely happy" to be onboard as a professor at CNSE, he says. "The faculty is outstanding, and I look forward to collaborating with them as I conduct my research." He is already working closely with faculty and a number of graduate students on optical physics and CMOS applications, among other areas.

Professor Diebold's areas of research encompass nanoscale metrology and materials science, materials characterization at the nanoscale, and semiconductor metrology and characterization. "Measurement of nanoscale films and structures requires a thorough understanding of the impact of phenomena such as quantum confinement in semiconductors, quantum size effects in metals, and surface states," he notes. "The shift in the critical point of thin silicon films can be explained by quantum confinement. Through understanding of this shift, film thickness measurement by ellipsometry can be observed."

"My goals are to both teach metrology and research the impact of nanoscale dimensions on the physical properties of materials and their measurement," explains Diebold. Examples include the impact of quantum confinement on thin film and nanowire optical properties, as well as research aimed at understanding transmission electron microscopy of nanowires and nano-transistors.

A core area of Professor Diebold's research will be optical physics of nanoscale materials and structures. This lab will enable extension of optical metrology to future generations of CMOS and provide critical measurements for nanoelectronics beyond CMOS. The impact of nanoscale dimensions on room temperature optical measurements has already been demonstrated. Dimensional confinement of electrons due to film thickness shifts the energy of key optical absorption energies and thus changes the optical properties used to measure thickness. The same shifts happen when the film is further confined to be a wire (including one having a rectangular shape) or 3D confinement in the form of a nano-dot. This lab will also research other nanoscale phenomena that impact optical properties and thus metrology.

Professor Diebold came to CNSE after 18 years with SEMATECH in Austin, Texas. Among his achievements during that time, he started and co-chaired the group that wrote the first Metrology Roadmap for what is now known as the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS), the industry standard assessment of the needs and challenges facing the semiconductor industry over the next 15 years.

Recently interviewed at SEMICON West by Solid State Technology magazine, Diebold spoke about the challenges in resolving the manufacturing issues facing the semiconductor industry at the 45nm and 32nm modes and beyond, and the lack of consensus within the industry on adopting either the immersion or the EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography method to move forward. "It's the metrologist's job to be ready for either... I think the challenges are large in both cases, but I think we'll be ready," he said.

As he looks ahead to the upcoming academic year and his continued research, Professor Diebold observes, "Although measurements at the nanoscale are challenging, my research will be greatly facilitated by the resources available at CNSE, which are the most advanced in the world."

Watch Professor Diebold's interview with Debra Vogler, Senior Technical Editor of Solid State Technology magazine, at SEMICON West 2007 for "SST on the Scene"