Dr Elisa M Sala

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Research Fellow

Semiconductor Materials and Devices Research Group

Elisa Sala
Profile picture of Elisa Sala
e.m.sala@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 5212

Full contact details

Dr Elisa M Sala
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Qualifications

I graduated in Solid State Physics at the University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy) in 2012.  

In 2018 I earned my PhD in Solid State Physics at the Technical University of Berlin (Germany), under the supervision of Prof. D. Bimberg, with a thesis entitled Growth and characterization of antimony-based quantum dots in GaP matrix for nanomemories.

Research interests

In year 2012 she carried out experimental training on MBE (Molecular Beam Epitaxy) growth and characterization of III-V semiconductor nanostructures at L-NESS, Laboratory for Nanostructure Epitaxy and Spintronics on Silicon (Como, Italy), as part of her masters degree.

In 2013 she was enrolled in a PhD program within the project HOFUS (Hoch-Funktionale-Speicher high functional memory architecture) in Bimbergs group, funded by the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), aiming to demonstrate the feasibility of a quantum-dot-based memory as a novel memory architecture (also named QD-Flash).

During her PhD research studies, she investigated the MOVPE (Metal Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy) growth, the optical and morphological characterization of a novel type of III-V semiconductor quantum dots, and their use as storage unit for the QD-Flash.

Her investigations demonstrated that the QD capture cross-section can be engineered by a fine-tuning of the growth parameters, which led to the storage record of 1 hour at room temperature for MOVPE-grown QDs so far, thus paving the way for an ultimate QD-based nanomemory.

In July 2018 she joined the EPSRC National Epitaxy Facility of the University of Sheffield as Research Associate in MOVPE.

Here she is dealing with the epitaxy and the characterization of various III-V semiconductor materials, in particular arsenides and phosphides, with a special focus on quantum dots as building blocks for novel optoelectronic devices.

Publications

Journal articles

  • Cizauskas M, Sala EM, Heffernan J, Fox AM, Bayer M & Greilich A (2025) . Physical Review B, 112(16), 165412.
  • Banfi EG, Sala EM, Gajjela RSR, Heffernan J & Koenraad PM (2025) . Journal of Applied Physics, 137(13).
  • Alimi Y, Guilhabert B, Jevtics D, Sala EM, Strain MJ, Groom KM & Heffernan J (2025) . Semiconductor Science and Technology, 40(1).
  • Chan CL, Sala EM, Clarke EM & Heffernan J (2025) . Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 58(2).
  • Sala EM, In Na Y & Heffernan J (2024) . Crystal Growth & Design, 24(22), 9571-9580.
  • Phillips CL, Brash AJ, Godsland M, Martin NJ, Foster A, Tomlinson A, Dost R, Babazadeh N, Sala EM, Wilson L , Heffernan J et al (2024) . Scientific Reports, 14(1).
  • Sala EM, Na YI, Godsland M & Heffernan J (2024) . physica status solidi (RRL) Rapid Research Letters, 18(2).
  • Sala DEM & Klenovsky P (2023) . New Journal of Physics, 25.
  • Gajjela RSR, Sala EM, Heffernan J & Koenraad PM (2022) . ACS Applied Nano Materials, 5(6), 8070-8079.
  • Sala DEM, Godsland M, Na YI, Trapalis A & Heffernan J (2021) . Nanotechnology, 33(6).
  • Steindl P, Sala DEM, Al矇n B, Bimberg D & Klenovsky P (2021) . New Journal of Physics, 23.
  • Sala EM, Godsland M, Trapalis A & Heffernan J (2021) . physica status solidi (RRL) - Rapid Research Letters, 15(9).
  • Gajjela RSR, Hendriks AL, Douglas JO, Sala EM, Steindl P, Klenovsk羸 P, Bagot PAJ, Moody MP, Bimberg D & Koenraad PM (2021) . Light: Science & Applications, 10(1).
  • Sala EM, Na YI, Godsland M, Trapalis A & Heffernan J (2020) . physica status solidi (RRL) Rapid Research Letters, 14(8).
  • Steindl P, Sala EM, Al矇n B, Marr籀n DF, Bimberg D & Klenovsk羸 P (2019) . Physical Review B, 100(19).
  • Sala EM, Arikan IF, Bonato L, Bertram F, Veit P, Christen J, Strittmatter A & Bimberg D (2018) . physica status solidi (b), 255(12).
  • Sala EM, Stracke G, Selve S, Niermann T, Lehmann M, Schlichting S, Nippert F, Callsen G, Strittmatter A & Bimberg D (2016) . Applied Physics Letters, 109(10).
  • Bonato L, Sala EM, Stracke G, Nowozin T, Strittmatter A, Ajour MN, Daqrouq K & Bimberg D (2015) . Applied Physics Letters, 106(4).
  • Sala EM, Bollani M, Bietti S, Fedorov A, Esposito L & Sanguinetti S (2014) . Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B, Nanotechnology and Microelectronics: Materials, Processing, Measurement, and Phenomena, 32(6).
  • Stracke G, Sala EM, Selve S, Niermann T, Schliwa A, Strittmatter A & Bimberg D (2014) . Applied Physics Letters, 104(12).

Conference proceedings

  • Martin NJ, Phillips C, Brash A, Godsland M, Foster A, Tomlinson A, Dost R, Babazadeh N, Sala E, Wilson LR , Heffernan J et al (2025) . Integrated Optics: Design, Devices, Systems, and Applications VIII (pp 35-35), 7 April 2025 - 11 April 2025.

Preprints

  • Cizauskas M, Sala EM, Heffernan J, Fox AM, Bayer M & Greilich A (2025) , arXiv.
  • Martin NJ, Brash AJ, Tomlinson A, Sala EM, Mills EO, Phillips CL, Dost R, Hallacy L, Millington-Hotze P, Hallett D , O'Flaherty KA et al (2025) , arXiv.
  • Phillips CL, Brash AJ, Godsland M, Martin NJ, Foster A, Tomlinson A, Dost R, Babazadeh N, Sala EM, Wilson L , Heffernan J et al (2023) , arXiv.
  • Sala EM & Klenovsk羸 P (2023) , arXiv.
  • Steindl P, Sala EM, Al矇n B, Bimberg D & Klenovsk羸 P (2021) , arXiv.
  • Steindl P, Sala EM, Al矇n B, Marr籀n DF, Bimberg D & Klenovsk羸 P (2019) , arXiv.

Links

Semiconductor Materials and Devices