David E. Aspnes

As a condensed-matter physicist, I have spent most of my career in industrial laboratories. I have specialized in the measurement of the optical properties of materials, surfaces, and interfaces; their interpretation in terms of microscopic processes; and their application to advanced technology. One example is the use of effective medium theories in evaluating microstructural properties of deposited thin films. A current example is the use of reflectance-difference spectroscopy and spectroscopic ellipsometry in the elucidation and control of epitaxial growth of semiconductor materials. A second current project is the analysis of silicon-dielectric interfaces, as investigated by the above, and by nonlinear optical techniques. I am also interested in mathematical methods of analysis, for example, virtual-interface theory and extending Fourier methods to the analysis of optical data. Finally, I am also interested in developing approaches to teaching topics such as classical electrodynamics to students who must now be highly flexible in their careers.