4. University of Liverpool

The senior investigators from the University of Liverpool will include Professors Paul R.Chalker (PRC) and Robert C. Pond (RCP). There is considerable expertise available in Liverpool University for characterization of new precursors and film characterization. The lead investigator at the University of Liverpool will be Paul Chalker who has worked as a manager in both industrial and academic environments over the last 18 years. Before moving to Liverpool he worked at the Harwell Laboratory in Oxfordshire where he worked on a range of EC (Brite-Euram and ESPRIT), UK national (DTI LINK, EPSRC) and internationally funded projects (Japan - NEDO). He is an experienced project manager and will lead the research activity and Liverpool and manage the links with the RTN project relating to growth, characterization, modeling and properties and technology. Paul Chalker has worked on various aspects of process development for electronic device materials including silicon oxynitrides for LOCOS (ESPRIT 369); advanced metallization schemes for silicon VLSI (ESPRIT 554); and microanalysis of ion implanted silicon and III-V semiconductors. Professor Chalker has worked extensively on the chemical vapor deposition of group IV materials, group III-nitrides, mixed arsenide nitrides and oxide films. In the current programme, He will lead the tasks on deposition and characterization of oxide thin films.

Robert Pond's principal research interests concern the structure and properties of interfaces in crystalline materials; this has involved both theoretical and experimental studies. He has developed a topological theory of interface defects which is able to predict the defect and step character of characteristic line-defects. This understanding enables the flux of material associated with interfacial defect motion and interactions to be quantified. On this foundation it has been possible to model processes such as phase transformations, particularly martensitic and diffusive-displacive types.