Understanding, Designing and Controlling Atomic Flaws for Functional Devices

The ability to understand, control, and manipulate defects in semiconductor materials remains of fundamental importance to advancing both established and emerging technologies. As the range of semiconductor hosts and applications continues to expand, so too does the need to characterize defect formation, evolution, and impact on material and device properties. For optoelectronic, photovoltaic, and quantum technologies, the detection and control of detrimental defects must occur at extremely low concentrations, while in other contexts defects are deliberately engineered for functionality, from electronic doping to sensing at the single-defect level. This conference will address the evolution of defects from isolated point defects to complexes and extended structures, and their connections to processing, performance, and long-term degradation. The program will span bulk semiconductors, interfaces, two-dimensional materials, and wide-bandgap nitrides, oxides, and carbides, as well as emerging classes such as perovskites and other novel compounds. Applications will range from energy conversion and distribution to spintronics, optoelectronics, and quantum information. Emerging opportunities in the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning for defect characterization and understanding will also be explored, alongside new experimental and theoretical approaches that are opening pathways to defect control in next-generation semiconducting materials.

The Gordon Research Conference is complemented by a highly successful Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) designed by and for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. The two-day GRS precedes the GRC, acclimatizing young scientists to the unique style of Gordon Conferences and encouraging them to share and present their ideas to their peers. Attendance at both the GRS and GRC provides young scientists with a unique opportunity to actively engage in this area of research that is of fundamental importance to existing and future developments in semiconductor and quantum technologies.