School of Engineering
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Quantum Nanomaterials Laboratory

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Career Highlights / Publications Research Professional Activities Courses / Teaching Activities
Paul Simmonds

Paul Simmonds

Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Paul Simmonds
Quantum Nanomaterials Laboratory

Full Profile

Career Highlights / Publications Research Professional Activities Courses / Teaching Activities

Research/Areas of Interest

Experimental development of novel semiconductor nanostructures for quantum information sciences.
Tailoring crystal symmetry and strain at the nanoscale to produce next generation optoelectronic devices.

AREAS OF RESEARCH EXPERTISE
• MBE growth, chamber maintenance, and system support.
• Low-temperature, high-field magnetoresistance quantized carrier/spin transport (quantum Hall
effects, Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations, 1D quantized conductance, 0.7 structure, etc.).
• Atomic force microscopy (AFM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD)
and photoluminescence (PL), Raman spectroscopy, ellipsometry, Rutherford back scattering, etc.
• Cleanroom-based micro/nanofabrication including photo- and e-beam-lithography, metallization,
and device packaging

Education

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Univ of Cambridge, GBR, 2008
  • Master of Science, Univ of Essex, GBR, 2002
  • Bachelor of Science, Univ of Durham/England, GBR, 1999

Biography

Dr. Paul Simmonds completed his Ph.D. in semiconductor physics at the University of Cambridge in 2008, followed by postdoctoral positions at the University of Minnesota, UCSB, and Yale University. Starting in 2011, he managed the Integrated NanoMaterials Laboratory at UCLA, and Chaired the IEEE Photonics Society chapter. From 2014–2023, Dr. Simmonds was a faculty member in Physics and Materials Science at Boise State University. He is now Associate Professor in Electrical & Computer Engineering at Tufts University. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, winner of the 2018 North American Molecular Beam Epitaxy Young Investigator award, and a National Science Foundation CAREER awardee.

His research lies at the convergence between electrical engineering, condensed matter physics, and materials science. A key tool in his work is molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), an advanced technique for growing ultrapure semiconductor crystals with atomic-level control over nanomaterial size. Specific research interests include the synthesis of novel semiconductor nanostructures, spintronics, high mobility electron transport, and the integration of dissimilar materials. His work has applications in a wide range of areas from quantum information science and advanced infrared optoelectronic devices, to low-power electronics."