Blair Tuttle, Ph.D.

Blair Tuttle, Ph.D.
Undergraduate Coordinator, Physics
Professor, Physics
116 Witkowski

Mailing Address:
PENN STATE BEHREND
1 PRISCHAK BUILDING
ERIE PA 16563

Blair Tuttle earned a B.A. from Bates College in 1990, majoring in Physics. He earned a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1997. His Ph.D. thesis was titled “Microscopic Theory of Hydrogen in Amorphous Silicon.”

After a three year Post Doctoral Research Appointment in the University of Illinois’s Electrical Engineering Department, Blair joined Penn State Behrend’s physics program in 2000.

Since joining Penn State Behrend, Blair has been actively pursuing research into the microscopic theory of materials used in electronics. He has collaborated with scientists and engineers from several institutions including Sandia National Labs, Micon Inc. and Vanderbilt University.

Blair has been nominated four times for Behrend’s Council of Fellows Faculty Research Award.

In addition to the introductory physics courses and the upper level theoretical physics courses, Blair has taught seminars on nano-science and technology. Students work with Blair on computational materials projects studying materials used in solar cells and other electronics. Some students have continued computational research at graduate schools such as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Indiana University.


Teaching Specialties

Modern Physics

Teaching Statement

In addition to the introductory physics courses and the upper level theoretical physics courses, Blair has taught seminars on nano-science, worked with students on research and advised Honors option courses.


Research Interests

Since joining Penn State Behrend, Blair has been actively pursuing research into the microscopic theory of materials used in electronics. One major thrust of his work is to understand how identify defects at the microscopic level influence device behavior. One system of interest has been silicon carbide junctions which are used in energy efficiency applications including LED white lights and power switches. 

Another major thrust of Blair’s research has been to understand amorphous semiconductors and the junctions between crystalline and amorphous materials. With students at Behrend, he has developed the Behrend Amorphous Modeling (BAM) code which have been used to model amorphous silicon and amorphous alloys between silicon, oxygen and hydrogen.

Blair has collaborated with scientists and engineers from several institutions. Currently, Blair has active collaborations at Penn State’s University Park and Vanderbilt University. Behrend students also have the opportunity to join in these collaborations through summer internships.


Grants and Awards

  • Senior Researcher on grant from National Science Foundation 10/2009 – Present
    • ‘The oxidation of silicon carbide and structure-defects-mobility relations’ Lead PI, S. Pantelides, Vanderbilt
  • Lead PI on grant from National Center for Supercomputer Applications 08/2000 – 09/2010
    • ‘Atomic simulations of silicon-based electronics’
  • Fellowship from the Petroleum Research Fund Summer 2006
    • Collaborated with R. Ramprasad on his grant entitled ‘Computational Study of Conduction and Breakdown Mechanisms in Metal Oxide Dielectric Insulators’
  • Lead PI on Petroleum Research Fund grant 09/2003 – 08/2005
    • ‘Thermodynamics, kinetics and hyperfine parameters of defects in hydrogenated amorphous silicon’
  • Received award to attend the AAPT Workshop for New Physics Faculty October 2002

Spherical cluster method for ground state determination of site-disordered materials: Application to AgxBiyIx+ 3y, Computational Materials Science - May, 2022
Collaborators: Victor Barone; Sanjay Khare

Phosphorus Diffusion and Deactivation During SiGe Oxidation, Journal of Applied Physics - April, 2023
Collaborators: Chappel Thornton; Xiao Shen; Xuebin Li; Mark Law; Sokrates Pantelides; George Wang; Kevin Jones

Low-Energy Ion-Induced Single-Event Burnout in Gallium Oxide Schottky Diodes, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NUCLEAR SCIENCE - April, 2023
Collaborators: R Cadena; Array Bell, Co-Author; S Islam; A Senareth; E Zhang; M McCurdy; E Farzana; J Speck; N Karom; A O'Hara; Sokrates Pantelides; A Witulski; K Galloway; M Alles; R Reed; Dan Fleetwood

Atomic-displacement threshold energies and defect generation in irradiated β-Ga2O3: A first-principles investigation, Journal of Applied Physics - January, 2023
Collaborators: N Karom; A O'Hara; Ron Schrimpf; Sokrates Pantelides

Properties of AgBiI4 using high through-put DFT and machine learning methods, Journal of Applied Physics - February, 2022
Collaborators: Victor Barone; Sanjay Khare

Rudorffites and Beyond: Perovskite-Inspired Copper/Silver Pnictohalides for NextGeneration Environmentally-Friendly Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics, Advanced Functional Materials - July, 2022
Collaborators: Abhisek Chakraborty; Narendra Pai; Jing Zhao; Alexandr Simonov; Vincenzo Pecunia

Role of Defects and Structure Evolution across Ferroelectric Phase Transitions Studied by Quantitative Aberration-Corrected STEM, Microscopy and Microanalysis - August, 2022
Collaborators: Albina Borisevich; Rama Vasudevan; Kyle Kelley; Sabine Neumayer; Michael Susner; Michael McGuire; Kevin Morozovska; Eugene Eliseev; Panchapakesan Ganesh; Andrew O'Hara; Nina Balke; Peter Maksymovych

The diffusion of Ge in SiGe/Si Nanofins, ACS Interfaces and Materials - June 15, 2022
Collaborators: Chappal Thornton; Emily Turner; Mark Law; Sokrates Pantelides; George Wang; Kevin Jones

Optoelectronic and mechanical properties of the Cu2CdGe(SxSe1x)4 semiconducting system via first principles methods, Journal of Applied Physics - May, 2022
Collaborators: Victor Barone; Sanjay Khare; Bishal Dumra; Randall Ellindson

Assessing the Impact of Defects on Lead-Free Perovskite-Inspired Photovoltaics via Photo-Induced Current Transient Spectroscopy, Advanced Energy Materials - April, 2021
Collaborators: Vincenzo Pecunia; Jing Zhao; Jaewhon Kim; Jainjun Wei

Effects of strain on defect-graphene superlattices, American Institute of Physics Advances - 2020
Collaborator: Victor Barone, Student Author

Theory of photoionization defects in nano-porous SiC alloys, Journal of Applied Physics - 2019
Collaborators: Tyler Summers, Student Author; Colton Barger, Student Author; Joseph Noonan, Student Author; Sokrates Pantelides

Formation energies of charged defects in two-dimensional materials – resolution of long-standing difficulties, Physical Review B
Collaborators: Andrew O'Hara; Xiao-Guang Zhang; Sokrates Pantelides

Dangling Bond Defects in SiC: an ab initio study, Physical Review B - 2018
Collaborator: Array Array

Radiation Induced Charge Trapping , IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science - October, 2017
Collaborator: P Wang

Properties of Hydrogenated Nanoporous SiC: An Ab Initio Study, Journal of Nanomaterials - January, 2017
Collaborators: Sokrates Pantelides; Nathan Held, Student Author; Liam Lin, Student Author

A theoretical view of single chain chalcogenide-based one-dimensional materials , Nanomaterials - January, 2017
Collaborator: Sokrates Pantelides

The properties of isolated dangling bonds on hydrogenated 2H-SiC surfaces, Surface Science - October, 2016
Collaborator: Sokrates Pantelides

Large excitonic effects in group IV-sulfide monolayers, Physical Review B - December, 2015
Collaborators: Sokrates Pantelides, Co-Author; Saeed Alhassan, Co-Author

Activation Energies for Oxide- and Interface-Trap Charge Generation Due to Negative-Bias Temperature Stress of Si-Capped SiGe-pMOSFETs, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON DEVICE AND MATERIALS RELIABILITY - September, 2015
Collaborators: Guo Duan; Jordan Hatchel; Xiao Shen; En Zhang; Cher Zhang; Array Array

Silicon Carbide: A unique platform for metal-oxide-semiconductor physics, Applied Physics Reviews - June 18, 2015
Collaborators: Gang Liu, Co-Author; Sarit Array, Co-Author

Atomic state and characterization of nitrogen at the SiC/SiO2 interface, Journal of Applied Physics - January 15, 2014
Collaborator: Y Xu, Co-Author

Competing atomic and molecular mechanisms of thermal oxidation – SiC versus Si, J. App. Phys. - September 15, 2013
Collaborators: X Shen; S. Pantelides

Theory of hyperfine active nitrogen complexes observed in 4H-SiC diodes, App. Phys. Lett. - August 30, 2013
Collaborators: P. Lenahan; Thomas Aichinger; S. Pantelides

Effects of strain on the electrical properties of silicon carbide, J. App. Phys. - July 15, 2013
Collaborators: Fiona Steel, Student Author; X Shen; S. Pantelides

Theory of near-interface trap quenching by impurities in SiC-based metal-oxide-semiconductor devices, App. Phys. Lett. - June 30, 2013
Collaborators: X Shen; S. Pantelides

Mechanisms Separating Time-Dependent and True Dose-Rate Effects in Irradiated Bipolar Oxides, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science - December, 2012
Collaborators: Nicole Rowsey, Primary Author; Mark Law, Secondary Author; Ronald Scrimpf, Secondary Author; Daniel Fleetwood, Secondary Author; Sokrates Pantelides, Secondary Author

The Effects of Proton-Defect Interactions on Radiation-Induced Interface-Trap Formation and Annealing, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science - December, 2012
Collaborators: David Hughart, Primary Author; Ronald Scrimpf, Secondary Author; Daniel Fleetwood, Secondary Author; Nicole Rowsey, Secondary Author; Mark Law, Secondary Author; Sokrates Pantelides, Secondary Author

Recent advances in first principles computations in materials science, Journal of Materials Science - 2012
Collaborators: R. Raprasaad; V. Kumar; L. Fonseca

Reliability of III-V devices - the defects that cause the trouble, Microelectronics Engineering - 2012
Collaborators: S. Pantelides; Y. Puzyrev; X. Chen; T. Roy; S. DasGupta; D. Fleetwood; R. Shrimpf

Sodium, Rubidium and Cesium in the Gate Oxides of SiC MOSFETs, Materials Science Forum - May 14, 2012
Collaborators: Sarit Dhar, Secondary Author; S H Ryu, Secondary Author; X Zhu, Secondary Author; John Williams, Secondary Author; Lenard Fonseca, Secondary Author; Sokrates Pantelides, Secondary Author

A nitrogen-related deep level defect in ion implanted 4H-SiC pn junctions - A spin dependent recombination study, Applied Physics Letters - March 16, 2012
Collaborators: Thomas Aichinger, Primary Author; Patrick Lenahan, Secondary Author; Dethard Peters, Secondary Author

A Quantitative Model for ELDRS and Degradation Effects in Irradiated Oxides Based on First Principles Calculations, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science - 2011
Collaborators: N. Rowsey; M. Law; R. Schrimpf; D. Fleetwood; S. Pantelides

Mechanisms of Interface Trap Buildup and Annealing During Elevated Temperature Irradiation, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science - 2011
Collaborators: D. Hughart; R. Schrimpf; D. Fleetwood; S. Pantelides

A Quantitative Model for ELDRS and the Degradation Effects in Irradiated Oxides Based on First Principles Calculations, IEEE Trans. Nuc. Sci. - 2011
Collaborators: N. Rowsey; M. Law; R. Schrimpf; D. Fleetwood; S. Pantelides

Dehydrogenation of defects and hot-electron effects in GaN high-electron-mobility transistors, Journal of Applied Physics - 2011
Collaborators: Y. Puzyrev; T. Roy; M. Beck; R. Schrimpf; D. Fleetwood; S. Panteldies

High electron mobility due to sodium ions in the gate oxide of SiC-MOSFETs, Journal of App. Phys. - 2011
Collaborators: S. Dhar; S-H. Ryu; X. Zhu; J. Williams; L. Feldman; S. Pantelides

Mechanisms of Interface Trap Buildup and Annealing During Elevated Temperature Irradiation, IEEE Trans. on Nuc. Sci. - 2011
Collaborators: D. Hughart; R. Schrimpf; D. Fleetwood; S. Pantelides

Defect Interactions of H2 in SiO2: Implications for ELDRS and Latent Interface Trap Buildup, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science - 2010
Collaborators: D. Hughart; R. Schrimpf; D. Fleetwood; S. Pantelides

Performance, Reliability, Radiation Effects and Aging Issues, In Microelectronics - From Atomic-scale Physics to Engineering-level Modeling, Solid State Electronics - 2010
Collaborators: S. Pantelides; L. Tsetseris; M. Beck; S. Rashkev; G. Hadjisavvas; I. Batyrey; A. Marinopoulos; X. Zhou; D. Fleetwood; R. Schrimpf

Defect Interactions of H2 in SiO2: Implications for ELDRS and Latent Interface Trap Buildup, IEEE Trans. on Nuc. Sci. - 2010
Collaborators: D. Hughart; R. Schrimpf; D. Fleetwood; S. Pantelides

Electrical-stress-induced degradation in AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors grown under gallium-rich, nitrogen-rich and ammonia-rich conditions, Applied Physics Letters - 2010
Collaborators: T. Roy; Y. Puzyrev; D. Fleetwood; R. Schrimpf; D. Brown; U. Mishra; S. Pantelides

Excess Carbon in Silicon Carbide, Journal of Applied Physics - 2010
Collaborators: X. Shen; M. Oxley; Y. Puzyrev; G. Duscher; S. Pantelides

Theory of hot-carrier-induced phenomena in GaN high-electron-mobility transistors, Applied Physics Letters - 2010
Collaborators: Y. Puzyrev; R. Schrimpf; D. Fleetwood; S. Pantelides

The Effects of Aging and Hydrogen on the Radiation Response of Gated Lateral PNP Bipolar Transistors, IEEE Trans. on Nuc. Sci. - 2009
Collaborators: D. Hughart; R. Schrimpf; D. Fleetwood; X. Chen; H. Barnaby; K. Holbert; R. Pease; D. Platteter; S. Pantelides

Vacancy related defects and the E’δ center in amorphous silicon dioxide: density functional calculations, Physical Review B - 2009
Collaborator: S. Pantelides

Atomic Displacement Effects in Single-Event Gate Rupture, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science - 2008
Collaborators: M. Beck; R. Schrimpf; D. Fleetwood; S. Pantelides

Comment on 'Theory of Defect levels and the LDA Band Gap Problem in Silicon', Physical Review Letters - 2008
Collaborator: S. Pantelides

Effects of Hydrogen on the Radiation Response of Bipolar Transistors: Experiment and Modeling, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science - 2008
Collaborators: I. Batyrev; D. Hughart; R. Durand; M. Bounasser; D. Fleetwood; R. Schrimpf; S. Rashkeev; G. Dunham; M. Law; S. Pantelides

Reactions of Water Molecules in Silica-Based Network Glasses, Physical Review Letters - 2008
Collaborators: I. Batyrev; D. Fleetwood; R. Schrimpf; L. Tsetseris; T. PantelidesS.

Diffusion of O vacancies near Si:HfO2 interfaces: An ab initio investigation, Physical Review B - 2007
Collaborators: C. Tang; R. Ramprasad

First-principles study of the valence-band offset for strained hafnia on Si(001), Physical Review B - 2007
Collaborators: C. Tang; R. Ramprasad

Microscopic Aspects of the Variations in the Retention Times of MOSFET DRAM, Applied Physics Letters - 2007
Collaborator: R. Meade

Hydrogen Release in SiO2: Source Sites and Release Mechanisms, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section B - 2006
Collaborators: R. Van Ginhoven; H. Hjalmarson; A. Edwards; P. Schultz

Hydrogen Release in SiO2: Source Sites and Release Mechanisms, Nuc. Instr. and Meth. in Phys. Res. - 2006
Collaborators: R. Van Ginhoven; H. Hjalmarson; A. Edwards; P. Schultz

Investigation of mechanical stability of possible structures of PtN using first-principles computations, Physical Review B - 2006
Collaborators: S. Patil; S. Khare; J. Bording; S. Kodambaka

On the behavior of hydrogen in amorphous silicon, Modern Physics Letters B - 2005

Theoretical investigation of the valence band offset between Si(100) and SiO2, Physical Review B - 2004

Theory of hydrogen related metastability in disordered silicon, Physical Review Letters - 2004

Chapter 11: Modeling Electronics at the Nano-Scale - 2003
Collaborators: K. Hess; U. Raviaoli; J. Leburton; N. Aluru; M. Staedele; S. Rotkin; T. van der Straaten; W. McMahon

Atomistic Tight-Binding Calculations for the Investigation of Transport in Extremely Scaled SOI Transistors, Proceedings of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers International Electron Device - 2003
Collaborators: M. Stadele; A. DiCarlo; P. Lugli; F. Sacconi

Tunneling through Thin Oxides - New Insights from Microscopic Calculations, Journal of Computational Electronics - 2003
Collaborators: M. Stadele; B. Fisher; K. Hess

Prediction of dopant ionization energies in silicon: the importance of strain, Physical Review B - 2003
Collaborators: A. Rockett; D. Johnson; S. Khare

Ab initio valence band offsets between Si(100) and SiO2 from microscopic models, Physical Review B - April, 2003

Resonant Electron Tunneling through Defects in Ultrathin SiO2 Gate Oxides in MOSFETs, Solid-State Electronics - 2002
Collaborators: M. Staedele; B. Fischer; K. Hess

Tunneling through Ultrathin SiO2 Gate Oxide from Microscopic Models, Journal of Applied Physics - January, 2001
Collaborators: M. Staedele; K. Hess

Influence of Defects on Elastic Gate Tunneling Currents through Ultrathin SiO2 Gate Oxides: Predictions from Microscopic Models, Superlattices and Microstructures - November, 2000
Collaborators: M. Staedele; B. Fisher; K. Hess

Microscopic Theory of Hydrogen in Silicon Devices, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Transactions on Electron Devices - October, 2000
Collaborator: C. Van de Walle

Hydrogen Related Defect Creation at the Si/SiO2/Si Interface of Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors During Hot Electron Stress, Superlattices and Microstructures - June, 2000
Collaborators: L. Register; K. Hess

Tight Binding Investigation of Tunneling in Thin Oxides, Superlattices and Microstructures - June, 2000
Collaborators: M. Staedele; K. Hess

Hydrogen and Hot Electron Defect Creation at the Si(100)-SiO2 Interface of Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors, Superlattices and Microstructures - February, 2000
Collaborators: W. McMahon; K. Hess

Energetics and Diffusion of Hydrogen in SiO2, Physical Review B - January, 2000

Hot Carrier Degradation Issues in Submicron MOSFETs - 1999
Collaborators: K. Hess; L. Register; J. Lyding; I. Kizilyalli

Channel Hot Carrier Degradation in MOSFETs, Physica B - 1999
Collaborators: K. Hess; L. Register; W. McMahon; O. Ajtas; U. Ravailoi; J. Lyding; I. Kizilyalli

Isotope Effect in Hot Electron Transistor Degradation by Hot Electron, Abstract Papers of the American Chemical Society - 1999
Collaborator: K. Hess

Theory of Hydrogen Interactions with Amorphous Silicon, Amorphous and Heterogeneous Silicon Thin Films - Fundamentals to Devices - 1999
Collaborator: C. Van de Walle

Hydrogen and PB Defects at the Si(111)-SiO2 Interface: An ab initio Cluster Study, Physical Review B - 1999

Magnitude of the Threshold Energy for Hot Electron Damage in Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor by Hydrogen Desorption, Applied Physical Letters - 1999
Collaborators: K. Hess; L. Register; D. Ferry

Mechanisms for Hydrogen Exchange in Silicon: An ab initio Study, Physical Review B - 1999
Collaborators: C. Van de Walle; J. Adams

Structure, Energetics and Vibrational Properties of Si-H Bond Dissociation in Silicon, Physical Review B - 1999
Collaborator: C. Van de Walle

Impact of Nanostructure Research on Conventional Solid State Electronics, Physica E - 1998
Collaborators: K. Hess; L. Register; J. Lyding; I. Kizilyalli

Energetics of Hydrogen in Amorphous Silicon: An ab initio Study, Physics Review B - 1998
Collaborator: J. Adams

Structure, Dissociation and Vibrational Signatures of Hydrogen Clusters in Amorphous Silicon, Physical Review B - 1997
Collaborator: J. Adams

Study of a-Si:H from Harris Functional Molecular Dynamics, Physical Review B - 1996
Collaborator: J. Adams

Ginzburg-Landau Theory of Shear Moduli in Anisotropic Superconductors, Physical Review B - 1993
Collaborator: K. Petzinger

Ph D, Physics, The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

BA, Physics, Bates College