Daniel L. Rode

Professor


Office: 215 Bryan Hall
Tel. (314) 935-5575
email: dlr@ese.wustl.edu

 

 

 


Education
Case Western University Ph.D. 1968
Case Institute of Technology M.S. 1966
University of Dayton B.S. 1964

Industry Experience
Bell Telephone Laboratories

Research & Teaching
Electronics, Optoelectronics
Semiconductor Materials and Devices

 

 

Since 1980, Professor Rode has been a Professor of Electrical & Systems Engineering at Washington University. Prior to that time he was the Technical Group Supervisor of the Compound Semiconductor Group at Bell Telephone Laboratories-Murray Hill where his group developed the World's first semiconductor lasers for use in fiber-optic communications systems.

He is currently carrying out research in the areas of optoelectronics and fiber optics, a new charge-injection theory of the bipolar transistor and associated precision electronics, and the electron transport physics of large-energy-gap semiconductors. Work in optoelectronics and fiber optics applies to high-speed optical interconnects using fiber optics and polymer optical waveguides to replace slower electrical interconnects in future advanced electronic systems.

Professor Rode has also developed a number of novel semiconductor laser diodes and high-speed light-emitting diodes for use in optoelectronics applications. Work is in progress on new types of fiber-optic sensors. This research involves crystal growth, photolithography, chemical etching of semiconductor crystals, metallization, and other types of semiconductor wafer processing and microfabrication as well as optical and electrical characterization utilizing optical spectrometers, high-resolution x-ray diffraction, high-speed superconducting sampling oscilloscopes and various laser and fiber-optic measurement techniques.

Theoretical work on the charge-injection theory of bipolar transistors is directed toward a detailed physical description of transistor behavior in terms of fundamental electrical and thermal properties of advanced bipolar transistors used in high-performance electronic and computing environments. This physics-based treatment of the important high-speed bipolar transistor allows one to determine the effects of crystal-growth, wafer materials, and geometrical factors on the behavior of transistor devices from a knowledge of the basic electronic physics of the semiconductor material. Operating electronic regimes include very deep saturation, quasi-inverse, and high-injection as well as the popular forward-active regime covered by previous treatments.

Future applications of optoelectronic devices to high-power and high-temperature environments require the use of exotic semiconductors with larger energy gaps than those which are currently available. Recent breakthroughs around the world in the crystal growth of group III-nitrogen compounds such as gallium-nitride, indium-nitride, and aluminum-nitride have created an exciting new potential for major progress in this area.

These materials also open the possibility of optoelectronic performance in the near-ultraviolet and blue regions of the optical spectrum. Prof. Rode was the first to theoretically describe some of the electronic properties of gallium-nitride as early as 1973, but with recent experimental information becoming available for the first time, much additional work needs to be done to promote our understanding of the fundamental electron physics of these new large-energy-gap compound semiconductors.

Professor Rode is the Director of the Optoelectronics Research Laboratory at Washington University, He incorporated the International Conference on Compound Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology (GaAs Mantech) as a not-for-profit Missouri corporation and served as a member of the Executive Committee and as Treasurer from its founding in 1986, managing its finances and investments to the million-dollar level when he retired from GaAs Mantech in 2004.

Professor Rode is also an avid rock gardener and woodland gardener. His garden has been featured in such national publications as Garden Gate Magazine and Woman's Day Magazine, and in local newspapers and magazines, as well as on tours by the North American Rock Garden Society and the American Conifer Society.

 

 

 


Selected Publications

 


"Charge-Injection Theory of Bipolar Junction Transistors," D. L. Rode, J. Appl. Phys. 76, 4173 (1 October 1994).

"Electron Hall Mobility of n-GaN," D.L. Rode and D. K. Gaskill, Appl. Phys. Letters 66, 1972-3 (April 10 1995).

"Efficient Coupling Technique for Single-Mode Optical D-Fiber to Buried Polymer Acrylic Waveguides," (invited)
T. S. Barry, D.L. Rode and R. R. Krchnavek, Photonic Device Engineering for Dual-Use Applications, SPIE vol. 2481,
Orlando, April 17-18, 1995.

"Efficient Multimode Optical Fiber-to-Waveguide Coupling for Passive Alignment Applications in Multichip Modules,"
T. S. Barry, D. L. Rode, M.H. Cordaro, R. R. Krchnavek and K. Nakagawa, IEEE Trans. CPMT B 18, 685-90 (November 1995).

"Highly Efficient Coupling Between Single-Mode Fiber and Polymer Optical Waveguides," T. S. Barry, D. L. Rode, and
R. R. Krchnavek, IEEE Trans. CPMT B 20, 225-8 (August 1997).

"Low-Loss, Single-Mode, Organic Polymer Waveguides Utilizing Refractive Index Tailoring," C. W. Phelps, T. S. Barry,
D. L. Rode, and R. R. Krchnavek, IEEE J.of Lightwave Tech. 15, 1900-5 (September 1997).

"Do We Need a Roadmap?," Herbert S. Bennett, Joseph G. Pellegrino, D. L. Rode, Thomas J. Shaffner, David G. Seiler and
Emil Venere, Compound Semiconductor 5, 43-4 (April 1999).

"Device and Method for Monitoring Fluids with a Detection of Cross Sectional Shape of Transmitted Beam," D.P. Ames and
D.L. Rode, U.S. Patent 6,043,505 (March 28, 2000).

"Analysis of electron transport in a high-mobility free-standing GaN substrate grown by hydride vapor-phase epitaxy,"
F. Yun, H. Morkoc, D.L. Rode, K.T. Tsen, L.A. Farina, C. Kurdak, S.S. Park and K.Y. Lee, Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc.,
680E
, E2.2.1-6 (March 2001).

"Hall mobility and carrier concentration in free-standing high-quality GaN templates grown by hydride vapor-phase epitaxy,"
D. Huang, F. Yun, M.A. Reshchikov, D. Wang, H. Morkoc, D.L. Rode, L.A. Farina, C. Kurdak, K.T. Tsen, S.S. Park and
K.Y. Lee, Solid-State Electronics, 45, 711-15 (2001).

"Silicon Epitaxy," Semiconductors & Semimetals, eds. Danilo Crippa, Daniel L. Rode, and Maurizio Masi, (Academic Press,
New York, 2001), Vol. 72.

"Hydrogenated amorphous and microcrystalline GaAs films prepared by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering,"
L. H. Ouyang, D. L. Rode, T. Zulkiflia, Barbara Abraham-Shrauner, N. Lewis, and M. R. Freemane, J. Appl. Phys., 91, 3459-67 (March 2002).

"Optical characterization of radio-frequency magnetron-sputtered gallium-arsenide films under non-uniform thickness conditions," T. Zulkifli,
D. L. Rode, L. H. Ouyang, and Barbara Abraham-Shrauner, International Conference on Compound Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology,
p.147-150, May 03-05, 2004 (Miami Beach, Florida).

"Coupling LEDs to Fiber," D. L. Rode, Photonics Spectra Magazine, Vol. 38, Issue 8, p. 43, August 2004.

"Output Resistance of the Common-Emitter amplifier," D. L. Rode, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, 52, 2004-8 (September 2005).

"Subnanometer surface roughness of dc magnetron sputtered Al films,"
D. L. Rode, V. R. Gaddam, and Ji Haeng Yi, J. Appl. Phys., 102, 024303 (July 2007).