The 23rd Annual Conference on the Physics and Chemistry of Semiconductor Interfaces (PCSI-23) was held in La Jolla, California, January 21-25, 1996 at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography and the Sea Lodge hotel, both situated along the beach with great views of the ocean and the coastline.
The Conference continued to emphasize fundamental understanding of interface problems relevant for technology. The size of the meeting, as measured by the number of attendees and abstracts submitted increased about 10% relative to 1995. 81 papers were presented, including 16 invited talks. Silicon-related topics (including SiGe and Si/SiO2 interfaces) accounted for about 40% of the Conference Program, III-V semiconductor topics represented about 30%, and the rest was distributed among a variety of topics including wide- bandgap semiconductors, metal-semiconductor interfaces, new techniques, etc. A large fraction of these papers will appear in the July/August B14 (1996) issue of the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology.
The Workshop character was continued by allowing substantial amounts of discussion time, not only during the meeting but also by ensuring that every presentation - invited as well as contributed - was accompanied by a poster. Some of the invited talks were specifically aimed at educating participants about issues that impact technology.
The Conference began on Sunday evening with a session "Emerging Areas of Interface Physics", which included talks on organic semiconductors, epitaxial metals, and conductance quantization by Steve Forrest, Gary Prinz, and Mark Reed. Sessions were conducted on various topics, including interfaces in device physics, Si/SiO2 interfaces, Si surfaces, SiGe, III-V surfaces, III-V interfaces, III-V passivation, wide-bandgap semiconductors, transport, heteroepitaxy, metal-semiconductor interfaces, reflectance anisotropy spectroscopy, characterization, and new techniques for interface studies. A rump session on Tuesday evening focused on a candid assessment of the state of the art in nondestructive probes of buried interfaces, supplemented by an overview by Tom Seidel of interface issues in the silicon technology roadmap.
The silicon-interface part of the program was highlighted by a particularly stimulating session on the atomic structure of Si/SiO2 interfaces, in which two invited speakers, Reed McFeely and Alfredo Pasquarello, provided experimental and theoretical, respectively, perspectives that fueled a spirited debate concerning the interpretation of experiments that probe the microscopic structure of the interface. The topic is important because much current activity in Si technology is being driven by the need to fabricate essentially defect-free thin gate oxides, and interfaces dominate the behavior of oxides of thicknesses of 50 Angstroms or less. The discussion, joined by a large number of participants, brought out important differences and resulted in specific directions for experts to pursue to resolve conflicts and make progress in the field.
The Conference was a success due to the efforts of many people, including Karen Kavanagh for local organization, Carole Dow for registration and manuscript processing, Jack Dow for Conference management, Mary Ramos and Brent Morgan for assistance in local organization, the session chairs for keeping procedures on track and guiding the discussions, and Larry Cooper for continued support of the Conference. Sponsorship by the Office of Naval Research and the American Vacuum Society is gratefully acknowledged.
PCSI-24 will be held 12-15 Jan 1997 at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel and Convention Center, Research Triangle Park, NC. Abstracts should be submitted by 15 Oct 1996 to J. D. Dow, 6031 E. Cholla Lane, Scottsdale, AZ 85253-6902.
Chris G. Van de Walle, Conference Chair
D. E. Aspnes, Proceedings Editor