Professor Lisa M. Porter Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Ph.D., North Carolina State; Carnegie Mellon Department of Materials Science and Engineering Carnegie Mellon University 5000 Forbes Avenue Roberts Engineering Hall 145 Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 Email: Phone: (412) 268-4047 Fax: (412) 268-3113 Professor Porter's Web Site

Biography

Lisa Porter received the Ph.D. and B.S. degrees in Materials Science & Engineering from N.C. State University and Cornell University, respectively. She serves as a research and academic advisor to both graduate and undergraduate students and is actively involved in several outreach activities and societies. Her recent awards include the “Women Driving the Material World” Award from the Women & Girls Foundation of Southwest Pennsylvania (2006), a National Science Foundation Career Award (1999-2004) and a National Swedish Foundation Visiting Professorship (2000-2002).

Research Interests

Professor Porter's research activities are focused on the analysis of chemistry, microstructure, and electrical properties of electronically-functional interfaces. We are interested in a range of materials including but not limited to wide band-gap semiconductors; carbon-based semiconductors and nanostructures; metal-semiconductor interfaces; dielectric-semiconductor interfaces, as for example in metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) devices; polymer organic semiconductors and thin films. We are also interested in a range of applications and devices, including chemical and gas sensors, field-effect transistors (FETs), Schottky diodes, light-emitting diodes and solar cells. Examples of current research projects include the development of contacts to nanostructured carbon films; understanding the effect of defects on Schottky and ohmic contacts to silicon carbide; improving ohmic contacts for high-efficiency nitride-based LEDs; investigating the relationship between morphology, mobility and contact resistance in organic FETs, and the developing thermally-stable interfaces for solid-state semiconductor gas sensors.

Recent Publications

P. Kulkarni, L.M. Porter, F.A.M. Koeck, Y.-J. Tang, and R.J. Nemanich, “Electrical and Photoelectrical Characterization of Undoped and S-doped Nanocrystalline Diamond Films,” J. Appl. Phys. (2008) in press.

D.J. Ewing, L.M. Porter, Q. Wahab, X. Ma, T.S. Sudharshan, S. Tumakha, M. Gao, and L.J. Brillson, “Inhomogeneities in Ni/4H-SiC Schottky Barriers: Localized Fermi-Level Pinning by Defect States,” J. Appl. Phys. 101, 114514 (2007).

L.M. Porter, “Thermal Stability and Defects in Contacts to Silicon Carbide,” in Wide Band Gap Materials and New Developments, M. Syväjärvi and R. Yakimova, eds. (Research Signpost, Kerala, India) pp. 187-208, 2006.

F. A. Mohammad, Y. Cao, K.-C. Chang and L. M. Porter, “Comparison of Pt-based Ohmic Contacts with Ti-Al Ohmic Contacts for p-type SiC,” Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 44, 5933-5938 (2005).

K.-C. Chang, Y. Cao, L. M. Porter, J. Bentley, S. Dhar, L.C. Feldman , and J.R. Williams, “High Resolution Elemental Profiles of the Silicon Dioxide/4H-Silicon Carbide Interface,” J. Appl. Phys. 97, 104920.1-104920.6 (2005).