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Hi, thanks for being here! I am Shantanu, and this website is my research portfolio. If you are looking for my general fun science education page, please visit chemystery.org where I discuss interesting science. Feedback, inquiry, criticism are always welcome! For more details on my research, please refer to my CV, publications, patents, and book chapter.

I am an M.S. graduate in Materials science & engineering from Cornell University. I completed my undergraduation from BITS Pilani, with an integrated B.E. in Chemical engineering with an M.Sc. in Chemistry. I am currently a Senior Process Engineer at Applied Materials (AMAT) in their Santa Clara headquarters, where I develop bottom-up atomic-layer epitaxy, deposition and etch processes for advanced node (<1.4nm) semiconductor microchips.

My focus at AMAT is distributed across atomic-layer epitaxy (ALE), plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PE-ALD) and atomic-layer etch (ALE), for ongoing inflections in transistors (GAAFET and HEMT) – the tiny electrical switches that form the bedrock of all modern electronics. These efforts are geared towards extending Moore’s law into 3D transistor architectures through crystalline monolayer growth, pristine interfaces, defect suppression, and surface passivation.

I have previously also worked on plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PE-CVD), low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LP-CVD) and reactive-ion etching (RIE) at AMAT, for two applications: 1) to pattern, deposit, and etch photonic diffraction gratings (blazed, holographic) and waveguides for AR/VR, and 2) seam-free metal deposition in memory chips (DRAM, V-NAND). For details, please refer to my Google Scholar.

Please refer to the “Research” tab for a detailed overview. My research before AMAT has primarily focused on synthesis & characterization as well as the physics of material systems like:
• Chiral self-assembling multiscale materials (Nature Materials)
• Precursors to amphiphilic aramid self-assemblies (follow-on work by team in Nature Nano)
• Catalytic Janus motile nanoparticles (Nature Communications and ACS Nano), and
• Conductive Polymers (CRC Press) and Porphyrin/Pthalocyanine photosensitizers (UG Thesis)

While I have endeavored to gain expertise across diverse material systems, my interests now are more focused within semiconducting/dielectric/superconducting materials and their spin/charge/light physics. Please reach out if you share any mutual interests or would simply just like to talk! I love to discuss science at any time, or if you just need someone to hear you out.