Debdeep Jena

Biography

Debdeep Jena is the David E. Burr Professor of Engineering at Cornell University.  He is in the departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering, and is a field member in the department of Applied and Engineering Physics.  He joined Cornell in 2015 from the faculty at Notre Dame where he was since August 2003, shortly after earning the Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).  
 
His teaching and research are in the quantum physics of semiconductors and electronic and photonic devices based on quantized semiconductor structures (e.g. Nitrides, Oxides, 2D Materials), and their heterostructures with superconductors, ferroelectrics and magnets, with device applications in energy-efficient transistors, light-emitting diodes and RF and power electronics and quantum computation and communications.  His research is driven by the goal to enable orders of magnitude increase in the energy efficiency and speed for computation, memory, communications, lighting, and electrical energy management ranging from the chip to the grid.  
 
The research from his group has been published in more than 300 journal papers including in Science, Nature, Physical Review Letters, Applied Physics Letters and Electron Device Letters. Several patents have been granted for the group’s research work.  He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and is the winner of teaching awards and research awards such as the ISCS young scientist award in 2012, MBE young scientist award in 2014, and awards from the industry such as the IBM faculty award in 2012, and most recently the Intel Outstanding Research award in 2020.

Research Interests

The Jena group explores the fundamental limits of computation, memory, and communications with semiconductor devices by exploiting and understanding new physics. In recent years, they are immersed in research on the following topics: 

• the performance limits of ultrahigh speed GaN and AlN transistors for all-electronic THz sources, 
• ultra wide bandgap semiconductor transistors for power electronics (see Energy.gov presentation),
• photonic devices in the IR & visible, and deep-UV LEDs and lasers approaching 200 nm using quantum dots,
• ultra-low power electronics: logic and memory exploiting spintronics, topological insulators, and superconductors, and
• novel materials and devices for quantum computation and communication that go far beyond classical device limits. 

Often this research path requires us to explore new materials. We grow the new materials by ourselves using Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE), or work very closely with groups that do. Currently the materials families we are investigating for the above devices are: 

• Nitride semiconductors (and nitride superconductors, magnets, and ferroelectrics), 
• Graphene, hBN & 2D Crystals, and 
• Oxide semiconductors, ferroelectrics, and multiferroics.

The goal to make devices also requires, or results in, a deep theoretical understanding of electron transport, electron-phonon interactions, light-matter interactions, geometric and topological aspects of condensed matter physics, and correlated electron physics. We do a significant amount of theory and modeling ourselves, and often also work closely with theoreticians.  

Categorized research pages: Nitride Electronics, Oxide Electronics, UV Lasers/Photonics, 2D Materials, Ultrapolar/Ferro Semiconductors, Super/Semi Electronics

• Advanced Materials
• Energy Systems
• Energy and the Environment
• Advanced Materials Processing
• Materials Synthesis and Processing
• Nanotechnology
• Nonlinear Dynamics
• Semiconductor Physics and Devices
• Sensors and Actuators
• Solid State, Electronics, Optoelectronics and MEMs
• Power Electronics
• Physical Electronics, Devices, and Plasma Science
• Circuits and Electronic Systems
• Quantum Information Science