Entry Date:
January 22, 2000

Electronic Materials Research (EMAT) Group

Principal Investigator Lionel Kimerling

Co-investigators Kazumi Wada , Jurgen Michel


The Electronic Materials Research Group at MIT (EMAT) is the research laboratory led by Lionel C. Kimerling, Thomas Lord Professor of Materials Science and Engineering.

EMAT actively explores silicon-based microphotonics, a technology that promotes the convergence of electronic and optical devices to produce integrated solutions for application-specific problems, such as signal interconnection.

Focus is materials processing and device engineering for the creation of micron and sub-micron scale device elements for vertical integration with circuit systems. Primary applications include telecommunications, computation, and imaging. Key challenges require the mastery and manipulation of thin film materials design and processing, advanced device modeling, and state-of-the-art materials/device characterization.

Fundamental research topics delve into optical, electrical, kinetic and mechanical materials properties at the bulk versus nano-engineered level. The advanced study of electromagnetism is applied to design novel waveguide, resonant and photonic crystal structures.