Carol Trager-Cowan
Reader
Carol Trager-Cowan graduated with a degree in Natural Philosophy from Glasgow University in 1983, and then went east for a year to St Andrews University where her MSc studies found her studying ‘hot’ electrons in GaAs in the laboratory of Tony Stradling. Her travels then took her south to the laboratory of Prof Heddle at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College where she spent 2 and half years constructing, measuring and modelling the properties of electrostatic electron lenses. On completing her PhD studies in 1987, she returned to Glasgow to work with Brian Henderson and Kevin O’Donnell in the Department of Physics, Strathclyde University, where she got hooked on studying the luminescence properties of solids. Initially she used lamps and lasers to study light emission from rubies, garnets, glasses and II-VI semiconductors, but with lots of encouragement from her colleagues she combined her newly acquired appreciation of spectroscopy with her knowledge of electron optics to use electron beams to excite light emission from solids, and successfully applied for a SERC Fellowship to continue her studies. On April 1st, 1992, she joined the lecturing staff at Strathclyde and now uses electron beams to interrogate the structure, defects and light emission from solids. She was promoted to senior lecturer in June 1998.
| e: c.trager-cowan 
strath.ac.uk | t: 0141 548 3465 | u: http://ssd.phys.strath.ac.uk/
|
Research
Carol is presently fascinated with bright UV emission and the crystallography of nitride semiconductors, the material from which commercial UV/blue semiconductor LEDs and laser diodes are now being produced. In collaboration with Angus Wilkinson, Materials Department at Oxford University, Austin Day, Aunt Daisy Scientific Ltd and Aimo Winkelmann, Max-Planck-Institute for Microstructure Physics, she is working on new developments and novel applications of the electron beam techniques of electron backscatter diffraction, electron channelling contrast imaging and cathodoluminescence imaging. Nitride semiconductors from laboratories in the UK, Europe, USA and Japan are presently under study. She has published/presented over 100 papers on her research. In March 2007 she jointly organised the RMS Electron Backscatter Diffraction Conference with colleagues from Oxford and the US.
Highlights
Visiting Research Scholar Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia 2002; Invited research visit to Oak Ridge National Laboratory (2007)
European representative of the MRS Bulletin Interfaces Committee, 2007-
Joint organiser of Royal Microscopical Society Electron Backscatter Diffraction Conference, 2007
Invited talk at Microscopy and Microanalysis, Albuquerque 2008
Selected publications
G.Naresh-Kumar, B.Hourahine, P.R.Edwards, A.P.Day, A.Winkelmann, A.J.Wilkinson, P.J.Parbrook, G.England, C.Trager-Cowan, "Rapid nondestructive analysis of threading dislocations in wurtzite materials using the scanning electron microscope", Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 135503 (2012) doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.135503
K.Lorenz, I.S.Roqan, N.Franco, K.P.O'Donnell, V.Darakchieva, E.Alves, C.Trager-Cowan, R.W.Martin, D.J.As, M.Panfilova, "Europium doping of zincblende GaN by ion implantation", J. Appl. Phys. 105, 113507 (2009) doi: 10.1063/1.3138806
C.Trager-Cowan, F.Sweeney, P.W.Trimby, A.P.Day, A.Gholinia, N.H.Schmidt, P.J.Parbrook, A.J.Wilkinson, I.M.Watson, "Electron backscatter diffraction and electron channeling contrast imaging of tilt and dislocations in nitride thin films", Phys. Rev. B 75, 085301 (2007) doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.75.085301
A.Winkelmann, C.Trager-Cowan, F.Sweeney, A.P.Day, P.Parbrook, "Many-beam dynamical simulation of electron backscatter diffraction patterns", Ultramicrosc. 107, 414-421 (2007) doi: 10.1016/j.ultramic.2006.10.006
C.Trager-Cowan, F.Sweeney, J.Hastie, S.K.Manson-Smith, D.A.Cowan, D.McColl, A.Mohammed, K.P.O'Donnell, D.Zubia, S.D.Hersee, C.T.Foxon, I.Harrison, S.V.Novikov, "Characterization of nitride thin films by electron backscatter diffraction", J. Microsc. 205, 226-230 (2002) doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2818.2002.00996.x
S.Pereira, M.R.Correia, E.Pereira, K.P.O'Donnell, C.Trager-Cowan, F.Sweeney, E.Alves, "Compositional pulling effects in InxGa1-xN/GaN layers: A combined depth-resolved cathodoluminescence and Rutherford backscattering/channeling study", Phys. Rev. B 64, 205311 (2001) doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.64.205311
Current Grants
Carol Trager-Cowan, Benjamin Hourahine, Robert Martin, Kevin O'Donnell, ,
EU (2008-2012) £312014
Title: RAINBOW ITN (Marie Curie)
Carol Trager-Cowan, , , , ,
Strathclyde - Research development fund (2012-2012) £5926
Title: Direct electron imaging for electron backscatter diffraction and electron channelling contract imaging
