| Citation | Foxon's research is on the physics and applications of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), a technique used to fabricate semiconductor heterostructures for device applications and fundamental studies. His early work at Philips investigated how the kinetics of surface atoms control growth of binary compounds and alloys, and how dopant atoms, which control the electrical conductivity, are incorporated into a growing crystal. This pioneering work allowed Foxon and colleagues to produce world-leading quality heterostructures, which were used by collaborators to discover quantised electrical conductance, new excitonic effects in superlattices, and phenomena related to the fractional quantised Hall effect. At Nottingham, he pioneered a method for growing large bandgap zinc-blende GaN. Recently, he has grown ferromagnetic semiconductor heterostructures based on GaMnAs with Curie temperatures up to173K (a world record) with great potential for magnetic sensors and spintronics. He is one of only two UK scientists in the top 100 for physics citations worldwide. He received the Al Cho MBE Award 2004 for research achievements. |