(c) Dr Paul Kinsler. [Acknowledgements & Feedback]
Funding: INTERACT
After
Leeds,
I was offered a postdoc in the
Department of Applied Physics
at
Technical University Delft. I
worked with Prof Tom Wenckebach, on a project part of the
European Union INTERACT programme. For a while, I was working as a
visiting researcher from TUDelft in Leeds at my old desk. Later I
worked either from home or at my desk in Delft.
This project had some similarities with my work at Leeds -- both being on carrier dynamics in semiconductor structures. This means that the simulation methods and programs I used at Leeds for electron dynamics are ideal for translation to this new hole-based situation. However, holes are more complicated beasts than electrons, so planned to adapt my programs to be compatible with the demands of hole transport. However, in the end I adapted an already existing Delft code, which had short term advantages, but cost progress in the longer term.
One of the main problems with the Delft code was that physically distinct processes were not treated in logically distinct pieces of code, so one of the necessary tasks was to separate these out. This was done in tandem with the adaption of the code to the new III-V hot hole laser schemes, so it was a rather tricky thing to manage. Still, the bulk code gave good results, but unfortunately the further adaption to the quantum well case didn't get completed before my new postdoc at the Department of Physics at Imperial College in London. However, I have managed to get some Hall effect calculations for SiGe done, and am trying to write the results up.
It is pretty common to plan to continue past research in a new job, but there will never be enough time to finish the Monte Carlo hole code and get results -- so again a project dies when the postdoc moves on, and there is no ongoing funding. This is the new, efficent face of modern research funding. Three times I've had to move on because a project was not being continued, so three times I've had months of existing research and potential new research opportunities wasted because funding bodies pay for only short term contracts. This benefits neither me nor them, let alone the taxpayer whose money it originally was.
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Date=20020106 20010622 0223 20000114 19990818 Author=P.Kinsler Created=1999