Join us for the November Characterization User Forum focused on X-ray diffraction.
DATE: Wednesday, November 19, 2025
TIME: 4:00 p.m. — 5:00 p.m. ET
LOCATION: 12-0168 (MIT.nano basement teaching space)
- Get to know your Characterization community.
- Bring questions about your data.
- Share your feedback in a user-led town hall.
- Stay up-to-date with facility news.
- Food and drink will be provided.
Each user forum also includes a spotlight talk by a graduate student, postdoc, or researcher. The November forum will feature:
Applying high-resolution X-ray diffraction to far from equilibrium films and novel III-V alloys
Speaker
John McElearney, Research Scientist
Epitaxial Core Facility, Tufts University
Abstract
Our group specializes in growing far from equilibrium films for use in infrared optoelectronics, specifically III-V-Bi and Tl-III-V alloys. In each case, dilute alloying can have a dramatic impact on the host band structure, enabling new band gap and lattice constant combinations. From both a materials and device perspective, precise control of alloy composition and strain state is paramount; luckily, high-resolution x-ray diffraction offers a powerful method of probing both. More recently, students in our facility have begun looking at films grown along the (111) crystalline direction, introducing unique challenges to growth and HRXRD analysis.
Biography
John McElearney is a research scientist at the Epitaxial Core Facility at Tufts University. His work focuses on the growth and characterization of novel III-V alloys for use in infrared optoelectronics.