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Division of Energy and Innovation

UH Energy

economou-demetre

Dr. Demetre Economou, Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cullen College of Engineering

FACULTY WEBSITE 

  • Areas of expertise

    • Plasma science
    • Microelectric device fabrication
    • Nanopantography

  • Awards

    • Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Chair.
    • 2011-2014: Editorial Board, Journal of Applied Physics & Applied Physics Letters.
    • 2011: W. T. Kittinger Teaching Excellence Award (Highest teaching honor of the College of Engineering)
    • 2010-present: Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Chair
    • 2009: Esther Farfel Award (Highest honor accorded to a UH faculty member)
    • 2008: Plasma Prize, Plasma Science and Technology Division, American Vacuum Society
    • 2008: Fluor Daniel Faculty Excellence Award, College of Engineering, University of Houston (Highest Award of the
      College of Engineering)
    • 2008: Senior Faculty Award for Excellence in Research and Scholarship, University of Houston (Highest research award of the University of Houston)
    • 2003: Fellow, American Vacuum Society
    • 2003: Outstanding Teaching Award, Cullen College of Engineering, University of Houston
    • 2002: Sigma Xi Faculty Research Award
    • Guest Editor: IEEE Trans. Plasma Science, Special Issues, August 1995, October 1999, August 2003 and October 2007
    • Guest Editor: Thin Solid Films, Special Issues, 2000, 2007
    • 1998-present: International Editorial Board, Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing
    • 1999: Senior Faculty Research Excellence Award, College of Engineering, University of Houston
    • 1996-2010: John and Rebecca Moores Professor
    • 1995: Excellence in Research and Scholarship Award, University of Houston
    • 1992: Best Young Author Paper Award of the Journal of Electrochemical Society
    • 1991: Young Faculty Research Excellence Award, Cullen College of Engineering, University of Houston

  • Publications

    • Demetre J. Economou, “Hybrid Simulation of Low Temperature Plasmas: a Brief Tutorial,” Plasma Processes and Polymers 14, 1600152, 2017.
    • Sanbir S. Kaler, Qiaowei Lou, Vincent M. Donnelly and Demetre J. Economou, “Atomic Layer Etching of Silicon Dioxide Using Alternating C4F8 and Energetic Ar+ Plasma Beams,” J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 50, 234001, 2017
    • Wen Yan and Demetre J. Economou, “Gas flow rate dependence of the discharge characteristics of a helium atmospheric pressure plasma jet interacting with a substrate,” J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 50, 415205, 2017
    • B. Bruneau et al., “Effect of gas properties on the dynamics of the electrical slope asymmetry effect in capacitive plasmas: comparison of Ar, H2 and CF4,” Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 25, 01LT02, 2016
    • B. Bruneau, P. Diomede, D. J. Economou, S. Longo, T. Gans, D. O’Connell, A. Greb, E. Johnson, and J.-P. Booth, “Capacitively coupled hydrogen discharges sustained by tailored voltage waveforms: excitation dynamics and ion flux asymmetry,” Plasma Sources Sci. Technol., 25, 045019, 2016
    • D. J. Economou, “Hybrid Simulation of Low Temperature Plasmas: a Brief Tutorial,” Plasma Processes and Polymers, accepted, DOI: 10.1002/ppap.201600152 [Invited Paper], 2016
    • Sanbir S. Kaler, Qiaowei Lou, Vincent M. Donnelly and Demetre J. Economou, “Silicon Nitride and Silicon Etching by CH3F/O2 and CH3F/CO2 Plasma Beams,” J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 34, 041301, 2016
    • Shyam Sridhar, Lei Liu, Emilia Hirsch, Vincent M. Donnelly and Demetre J. Economou, “Insights into the mechanism of in-plasma photo-assisted etching using optical emission spectroscopy,” J. Vac. Sci. & Technol. A 34, 161303, 2016
    • Wen Yan and Demetre J. Economou, “Simulation of a non-equilibrium helium plasma bullet emerging into oxygen at high pressure (250-760 Torr) and interacting with a substrate,” J. Appl. Phys. 120, 123304, 2016
    • Lei Liu, Shyam Sridhar, Vincent M. Donnelly and Demetre J. Economou, “Ignition Delay in Pulsed Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) in Tandem with Auxiliary ICP,” J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 48, 485201, 2015
    • Lei Liu, Shyam Sridhar, Weiye Zhu, Vincent M. Donnelly, Demetre J. Economou, Michael D. Logue and Mark J. Kushner, “External Control of Electron Energy Distributions in a Dual Tandem Inductively Coupled Plasmas,” J. Appl. Phys. 118, 083303, 2015
    • Qiaowei Lou, Sanbir Kaler, Vincent M. Donnelly and Demetre J. Economou, “Optical Emission Spectroscopic Studies and Comparisons of CH3F/CO2 and CH3F/O2 Inductively Coupled Plasmas,” J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, 33, 021305, 2015
    • S. Tian, V. M. Donnelly, D. J. Economou, and P. Ruchhoeft, “Sub-10 nm nanopantography,”Appl. Phys. Lett. 107, 193109, 2015
    • Siyuan Tian, Vincent M. Donnelly and Demetre J. Economou, "Transfer of Nanopantography-Defined Patterns Using Highly Selective Plasma Etching," J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B, 33, 030602, 2015
    • Vladimir Samara, Jean-Francois de Marneffe, and Demetre J. Economou, “In-situ monitoring of etch uniformity using plasma emission interferometry,” J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B,  33, 031206, 2015
    • Demetre J. Economou, “Pulsed Plasma Etching for Semiconductor Manufacturing,” J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys., 47, 303001, [Invited Topical Review], 2014
    • Erdinc Karakas, Sanbir Kaler, Qiaowei Lou, Vincent. M. Donnelly, and Demetre J. Economou, “Measurements of Absolute CO Number Densities in CH3F/O2 Inductively-Coupled Plasmas by Optical Emission Self-actinometry,” J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys., 47, 085203, 2014
    • P. Diomede, Demetre J. Economou, T. Lafleur, J.-P. Booth, and S. Longo, “Radio-frequency capacitively coupled plasmas in hydrogen excited by tailored voltage waveforms: comparison of simulations with experiments,” Plasma Sources Sci. Technol., 23, 065049 {This paper was selected by the Editors of PSST as a 2014 Highlight, see http://iopscience.iop.org/0963-0252/page/Highlights-of-2014}, 2014
    • Paola Diomede and Demetre J. Economou, “Kinetic simulation of capacitively coupled plasmas driven by trapezoidal asymmetric voltage pulses,” J. Appl. Phys., 115, 233302, 2014
    • Paola Diomede, Demetre J. Economou and Vincent M. Donnelly, “Instabilities in Capacitively Coupled Plasmas Driven by Asymmetric Trapezoidal Voltage Pulses,” IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci., 42, 2822, 2014
    • Weiye Zhu, Shyam Sridhar, Lei Liu, Eduardo Hernandez, Vincent M. Donnelly, and Demetre J. Economou, “Photo-Assisted Etching of Silicon in Chlorine- and Bromine-Containing Plasmas,” J. Appl. Phys., 115, 203303, 2014
    • Demetre J. Economou, “Tailored ion energy distributions on plasma electrodes,” J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, 31, 050823 [Invited paper commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the American Vacuum Society], 2013
    • E. Karakas, V. M. Donnelly, and D. J. Economou, “Langmuir Probe and Optical Emission Spectroscopy of CH3F/O2 Inductively Coupled Plasmas,” J. Appl. Phys., 113, 213301, 2013
    • Erdinc Karakas, Vincent M. Donnelly and Demetre J. Economou, “Abrupt transitions in species number densities and plasma parameters in a CH3F/O2 inductively coupled plasma,” Appl. Phys. Lett., 102, 034107, 2013
    • H. Shin, W. Zhou, L. Liu, S. Sridhar, V. M. Donnelly, D. J. Economou, C. Lenox, and T. Lii, “Selective Etching of TiN over TaN and vice-versa in Chlorine-Containing Plasmas,” J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, 31, 031305, 2013
    • Paola Diomede, Doosik Kim and Demetre J. Economou, “Particle-in-cell simulation of electron and ion energy distributions in dc/rf hybrid capacitively-coupled plasmas,” AIChE J., 59(9), 3214. Special Issue of AIChE Journal in memory of Neal Amundson, 2013
    • Zhuo Chen, John A. Mucha, Vincent M. Donnelly, and Demetre J. Economou, “Plasma Enhanced Layer-by-Layer Deposition and Nano-crystallization of Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon Films,” J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B, 31, 061209, 2013
    • H. Shin, W. Zhu, D. J. Economou and V. M. Donnelly, “Ion Energy Distributions, Electron Temperatures and Electron Densities in Ar, Kr and Xe Pulsed Discharges,” J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, 30, 031304 [5 pages], 2012
    • H. Shin, W. Zhu, D. J. Economou and V. M. Donnelly, “The Surprising Importance of Photo-Assisted Etching of Silicon in Chlorine-Containing Plasmas,” J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A, 30, 021306 [10 pages], 2012
    • Michael D. Logue, Hyungjoo Shin, Weiye Zhu, Lin Xu, Vincent M. Donnelly, Demetre J. Economou, and Mark J. Kushner, “Ion Energy Distributions in Inductively Coupled Plasmas Having a Biased Boundary Electrode,” Plasma Sources Sci. & Technol., 21, 065009, 2012
    • P. Diomede, D. J. Economou and V. M. Donnelly, “Rapid Calculation of the Ion Energy Distribution on a Plasma Electrode,” J. Appl Phys,111, 123306., 2012
    • P. Diomede, S. Longo, D. J. Economou and M. Capitelli, “Hybrid Simulation of a DC-Enhanced Radio Frequency Capacitive Discharge in Hydrogen,” J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys., 45, 175204 [14 pages], 2012
    • H. Shin, W. Zhu, L. Xu, T. Ouk, D. J. Economou and V, M. Donnelly, “Control of ion energy distributions using a pulsed plasma with synchronous bias on a boundary electrode,”Plasma Sources Sci. Technol., 20, 055001 [9 pages]  , 2011
    • P. Diomede, M. Nikolaou and D. J. Economou, “Voltage Waveform to Achieve a Desired Ion Energy Distribution on a Substrate in Contact with Plasma,” Plasma Sources Sci. Technol.,20, 045011 [9 pages], 2011
    • P. Diomede, V. M. Donnelly and D. J. Economou, “Particle-in-Cell Simulation of Ion Energy Distributions on an Electrode by Applying Tailored Bias Waveforms in the Afterglow of a Pulsed Plasma,” J. Appl. Phys., 109, 083302 [7 pages], 2011
    • Q. Li, Y.-K. Pu, M. A. Lieberman and D. J. Economou, “A Dynamic Model of Streamer Coupling for the Homogeneity of Glow-Like Dielectric Barrier Discharges at Near-Atmospheric Pressure,” Phys. Rev. E., 83, 046405, 2011
    • S. G. Belostotskiy, O. Tola, V. M. Donnelly, D. J. Economou, and N. Sadeghi, “Time and Space Resolved Measurements of Ar(1s5) Metastable Density in a Microplasma Using Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy,” J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 44, 145202, 2011
    • G. Belostotskiy, O. Tola, V. M. Donnelly, D. J. Economou, and N. Sadeghi, “Gas Temperature and Electron Density Profiles in an Argon DC Microdischarge Measured by Optical Emission Spectroscopy,” J. Appl. Phys., 107, 053305, 7 pages, 2010
    • D. J. Economou, “Modeling and Simulation of Fast Neutral Beam Sources for Materials Processing,” Plasma Processes and Polymers, 6, 308-319, 2009
    • S. G. Belostotskiy, V. M. Donnelly, D. J. Economou, and N. Sadeghi, “Spatially Resolved Measurements of Argon Metastable (1s5) Density in a High Pressure Microdischarge Using Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy,” IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci., 37, 852-858, 2009
    • Z. Chen, V. M. Donnelly, D. J. Economou, L. Chen, M. Funk, and R. Sundararajan, “Measurement of electron temperatures and electron energy distribution functions in dual frequency capacitively-coupled CF4/O2 plasmas using trace rare gases-optical emission spectroscopy (TRG-OES),” J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A., 27, 1159, 2009
    • D. J. Economou, “Fast (10s -100s eV) Neutral Beams for Materials Processing,” J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys., 41, 024001 [11 pages], 2008
    • Lin Xu, Azeem Nasrullah, Zhiying Chen, Manish Jain, Demetre J. Economou, Paul Ruchhoeft, and Vincent M. Donnelly, “Etching of nanopatterns in silicon using nanopantography,” Appl Phys. Lett., 92, 013124, 2008
    • Lin Xu, Lee Chen, Merritt Funk, Alok Ranjan, Mike Hummel, Ron Bravenec, Radha Sundararajan, Demetre J. Economou, and Vincent M. Donnelly, “Diagnostics of ballistic electrons in a dc/rf hybrid capacitively coupled discharge,” Appl. Phys. Lett., 93, 261502, 2008
    • Sergey Belostotskiy, Rahul Khandelwal, Qiang Wang, Vincent M. Donnelly, Demetre J. Economou, and Nader Sadeghi, “Measurement of Electron Temperature and Density in an Argon Microdischarge by Laser Thomson Scattering,” Appl. Phys. Lett., 92, 221507, 2008
    • Sergey Belostotskiy, Vincent M. Donnelly, and Demetre J. Economou, “Influence of Gas Heating on High Pressure DC Microdischarge I-V Characteristics,” Plasma Sources Sci. Technol., 17, 045018, 2008
    • A. Ranjan, C. Helmbrecht, V. M. Donnelly, D. J. Economou, and G. Franz, “Effect of Surface Roughness on the Energy Distribution of Fast Neutrals and Residual Ions Extracted from a Neutral Beam Source,” J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B., 25, 258-263, 2007
    • D. Economou, “Fundamentals and Applications of Ion-Ion Plasmas,” Appl. Surf. Science,253, 6672-6680, 2007
    • L. Xu, N. Sadeghi, V. M. Donnelly, and D. J. Economou, “Nickel Atom and Ion Density in an Inductively Coupled Plasma with an Internal Coil,” J. Appl. Phys., 101, 013304
      , 2007
    • Q. Wang, F. Doll, V. M. Donnelly, D. J. Economou, N. Sadeghi, and G. Franz, “Experimental and Theoretical Study of the Effect of Gas Flow on Gas Temperature in an Atmospheric Pressure Microplasma,” J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys., 40, 4202-4211, 2007
    • S. Belostotskyi, Q. Wang, V. M. Donnelly, D. J. Economou, and N. Sadeghi, “Three Dimensional Gas Temperature Measurements in Atmospheric Pressure Microdischarges Using Raman Scattering,” Appl. Phys. Lett., 89, 251503, 2007
    • S. K. Nam, D. J. Economou, and V. M. Donnelly, “Particle-in-Cell Simulation of Ion Beam Extraction from a Pulsed Plasma Through a Grid,” Plasma Sources Sci. Technol., 16, 90-96, 2007
    • Sang Ki Nam, Demetre J. Economou and Vincent M. Donnelly, “Generation of Fast Neutral Beams by Ion Neutralization in High Aspect Ratio Holes: A Particle-in-Cell Simulation Study,” IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci., 35, 1370-1378
      , 2007
    • A. Ranjan, V. M. Donnelly, and D. J. Economou, “Energy Distribution and Flux of fast Neutrals and Residual Ions Extracted from a neutral beam Source,” J. Vac Sci. Technol. A,24, 1839-1846, 2006
    • O Polomarov, C. Theodosiou, I. Kaganovich, B. Ramamurthi, and D. J. Economou, “Self-Consistent Modeling of Non-Local Inductively Coupled Plasmas,” IEEE Trans. Plasma Science, 34, 767-785, 2006
    • Q. Wang, D. J. Economou, and V. M. Donnelly, “Simulation of Direct Current Micro-Plasma Discharge in Helium at Atmospheric Pressure,” J. Appl. Phys., 100, 023301, 2006
    • S. K. Nam, D. J. Economou, and V. M. Donnelly, “Particle-in-Cell Simulation of Beam Extraction Through a Hole in Contact with Plasma,” J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys., 39, 3994-4000, 2006
    • L. Xu, D. J. Economou, V. M. Donnelly and P. Ruchhoeft, “Extraction of a Nearly Monoenergetic Ion Beam from a Pulsed Plasma,” Appl. Phys. Lett., 87, 041502, 2005

  • Patents

    • Barna, Gabriel G., and Demetre J. Economou. Method for Measuring Plasma Properties in Semiconductor Processing. Texas Instruments Incorporated, assignee. Patent 4859277. 22 Aug. 1989. Print.
    • Donnelly, Vincent M., Demetre J. Economou, Paul Ruchhoeft, Lin Xu, Sri Charan Vemula, and Manish Kumar Jain. Method and Apparatus for Nano-pantography. University of Houston, assignee. Patent 7883839. 8 Feb. 2011. Print.
    • Economou, Demetre J., Lee Chen, and Vincent M. Donnelly. Hyperthermal Neutral Beam Source and Method of Operating. Tokyo Electron Limited, assignee. Patent 7358484. 15 Apr. 2008. Print.
    • Zhao, Jianpeng, Lee Chen, Vincent M. Donnelly, Demetre J. Economou, Merritt Funk, and Radha Sundararajan. Low Electron Temperature Microwave Surface-wave Plasma (SWP) Processing Method and Apparatus. Tokyo Electron Limited, assignee. Patent 8968588. 3 Mar. 2015. Print.

  • Grants and Funded Research

    • Predictive Control of Plasma Kinetics: Multi-Phase and Bounded Systems – Extension Years,” DoE Plasma Science Center, 08/15/2017 – 08/15/2019, $402,000(with V. Donnelly, DJE share 50%).
    • SMM: Massively Parallel Nanopatterning by Step-and Repeat Nanopantography with Reusable Stencil Masks,” NSF, 09/01/2015 – 08/31/2018 $1,425,722(with V. Donnelly, P. Ruchhoeft and J. Bao, DJE share 30%).
    • “Plasma-Surface Interactions During in-situ Photo-Assisted Etching,” NSF, 07/15/2015-07/15/2018, $434,998 (with V. Donnelly, DJE share 50%).
    • National Science Foundation, four-year grant amounting to almost $1.5 million to research nanopatterning technology, 2015.
    • National Science Foundation, 18-month, $150,000 grant funding atomic-scale patterning research. 2013.
    • Grants to Enhance and Advance Research, $30,000 grant to support new research in catalysis, nanofabrication. 2013.

  • Curriculum Vitae

    Not available

  • Contact information

    S239 Engineering Building 1
    Phone: 713-743-4320 | Fax: 713-743-4323
    economou@uh.edu