Current Research

Much of the current work is aimed at the development and exploitation of solvents for the preparation of small crystals of new nitrides, especially multinary nitrides containing transition metals (TM) and/or rare earths (REs). Small crystals are generally needed to determine the crystal structure and we get the opportunity to learn how to perform all the measurements and solve the structure ourselves.

We continue to look at sodium based fluxes but, in order to synthesize TM containing nitrides we alloy this with such elements as zinc, gallium and indium. We have already had some interesting results from this area, including the compound shown below, AE₂[Cr₂N₆] (AE = Ca or Sr). This highlights that different compounds can be made from the same set of elements, depending upon the synthetic route. The sodium-gallium flux allowed us to use lower temperatures than had been used before in our synthesis of Ca₃CrN₃ and hence we make a different compound. A pure sodium flux continues to be explored in an effort to synthesize large (cm scale) single crystals of GaN, a compound with tremendous promise in all areas of electronics. We are also looking at Li₃N as a flux for transition metal nitrides, something that our collaborators in Germany have been doing for some time now.

We are also currently investigating nitrides for luminescent materials.  For more specific information on that, visit Jesse's personal page.

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Last updated July 2007.  Questions or comments are welcome