- Karen Kavanagh
Karen L. Kavanagh teaches physics at
Simon Fraser University .She obtained a B.Sc. degree in Chemical-Physics from
Queen's University in 1978, followed by 3 years atBell Northern Research in Ottawa in their Advanced Technology Laboratory. She then moved to graduate school atCornell University , Ithaca, NY receiving her Ph.D.in Materials Science and Engineering in 1987. After post doctoral work atIBM andMIT , Kavanagh accepted a faculty position in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept. at the University of California San Diego.Her main field of interest is electronic materials science - studyingthe effects of defects on the properties of semiconductor materials and devices. She has worked on strain relaxation in lattice-mismatched semiconductor heterostructures, diffusion barriers and electrical contacts for silicon and III-V semiconductor based devices, epitaxial growth and nucleation, and electron transport through thin films and interfaces. She has expertise in a variety of characterization tools including electron microscopy, Rutherford backscattering, x-ray diffraction, and scanning probe microscopies.
She is the author of over 130 journal papers and conference proceedings, as shown in
Scopus . Her most cited papers are
*Gordon, R., Brolo, A.G., McKinnon, A., Rajora, A., Leathem, B., Kavanagh, K.L.Strong Polarization in the Optical Transmission through Elliptical Nanohole Arrays(2004) Physical Review Letters, 92 (3), pp. 374011-374014. Cited 128 times.*Marée, P.M.J., Barbour, J.C., Van Der Veen, J.F., Kavanagh, K.L., Bulle-Lieuwma, C.W.T., Viegers, M.P.A.Generation of misfit dislocations in semiconductors(1987) Journal of Applied Physics, 62 (11), pp. 4413-4420. Cited 118 times.
*Xin, H.P., Kavanagh, K.L., Zhu, Z.Q., Tu, C.W.Observation of quantum dot-like behavior of GaInNAs in GaInNAs/GaAs quantum wells(1999) Applied Physics Letters, 74 (16), pp. 2337-2339. Cited 104 times.
Awards
*Vancouver YWCA Women of Distinction Award (2006)
*NSERC University Faculty Awardee (2000)
*NSF Presidential Young Investigator (1991)
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