Dr Karen Vernon-Parry
Department Quality Lead
Summary
I have a keen interest in multidisciplinary work, and am leading a project to develop an "intelligent" pressure cuff for the lower leg. I also am heavily involved in 'What's in my stuff', an interdisciplinary research project which brings together science and art with the aim of raising awareness about the materials contained within some of the objects we own.
About
My research interests lie in the development and evolution of process-induced defects in semiconductors, originally ion implantation damage in silicon and silicon-germanium, and more recently in wide band gap materials such as semiconducting diamond and GaN. Such studies are in support of electronic device development. I use a variety of electrical characterisation techniques, such as current-voltage and capacitance-voltage measurements as well as deep level transient spectroscopy in this work.
Teaching
Department of Engineering and Mathematics
College of Business, Technology and Engineering
I am module leader for Engineering Investigations and Chemical and Thermodynamic Properties of Materials. I contribute to delivery of Rail-Specific Engineering, Track Engineering and Rail Mechanical Engineering.
Research
Prof. Eugene Terentjev's group at Cambridge University (Intelligent pressure cuff)
I was part of an EPSRC project run by Prof Colin Humphreys at Cambridge University (p-type GaN)
Dr Paul May at the University of Bristol (semiconducting diamond)
Dr Colin Leach, University of Manchester (electroceramics, especially ZnO)
Publications
Key Publications
Elsherif, O.S., Vernon-Parry, K., Evans-Freeman, J.H., & May, P.W. (2012). Electrical Characterisation of Defects in Polycrystalline B-Doped Diamond Films. Materials Science Forum, 717-20, 1315-1318. http://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.717-720.1315
Elsherif, O.S., Vernon-Parry, K., Evans-Freeman, J.H., & May, P.W. (2012). Effect of doping on electronic states in B-doped polycrystalline CVD diamond films. Semiconductor Science and Technology, 27 (6), 065019. http://doi.org/10.1088/0268-1242/27/6/065019
Elsherif, O.S., Vernon-Parry, K., Dharmadasa, I., Evans-Freeman, J.H., Airey, R.J., Kappers, M.J., & Humphreys, C.J. (2012). Characterization of defects in Mg doped GaN epitaxial layers using conductance measurements. Thin Solid Films, 520 (7), 3064-3070. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsf.2011.11.020
Elsherif, O., Vernon-Parry, K., Evans-Freeman, J.H., Airey, R.J., Kappers, M., & Humphreys, C.J. (2011). Characterisation of defects in p-GaN by admittance spectroscopy. Physica B: Condensed Matter, 407 (15), 2960-2963. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.physb.2011.08.077
Leach, C., Vernon-Parry, K.D., & Ali, N.K. (2010). Deep level transient spectroscopy study of the effect of Mn and Bi doping on trap formation in ZnO. Journal of Electroceramics, 25 (2-4), 188. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10832-010-9614-7
Vernon-Parry, K.D., Evans-Freeman, J.H., & Dawson, P. (2008). The effect of hole confinement on photoluminescence from Er in SiGe/Si quantum wells. Materials Science and Engineering B, 146 (1-3), 231-235. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.mseb.2007.07.012
Leach, C., & Vernon-Parry, K.D. (2006). The effect of sintering temperature on the development of grain boundary traps in zinc oxide based varistors. Journal of Materials Science, 41 (12), 3815-3819. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-006-7066-x
Vernon-Parry, K.D., Evans-Freeman, J., Hawkins, I.D., Dawson, P., & Peaker, A.R. (2001). Effect of dislocations on the photoluminescence decay of 1.54 μm emission from erbium-doped silicon. Journal of applied physics, 89 (5), 2715-2719. http://doi.org/10.1063/1.1344212
Vernon-Parry, K.D., Romano, L.T., Lees, J.S., & Grovenor, C.R.M. (1990). The degradation process in Tl2Ba2Ca1Cu2O10+x. Physica C: Superconductivity, 170 (5-6), 388-394. http://doi.org/10.1016/0921-4534(90)90005-y
Journal articles
Evans-Freeman, J., Vernon-parry, K., & Allen, M. (2012). Preface. Physica B: Condensed Matter, 407 (15), xi. http://doi.org/10.1016/s0921-4526(12)00538-8
Evans-Freeman, J.H., Emiroglu, D., Gad, M.A., Mitromara, N., & Vernon-Parry, K.D. (2006). Deep electronic states in ion-implanted Si. Journal of materials science. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-006-6597-5
Vernon-Parry, K.D., Davies, G., & Galloway, S. (2004). Electronic and structural properties of grain boundaries in electron-irradiated edge-defined film-fed growth silicon. Semiconductor science and technology. http://doi.org/10.1088/0268-1242/20/2/012
Vernon-Parry, K.D., & Wright, A.C. (2001). TEM: An introduction — part 2. III-Vs Review, 14 (1), 48-51. http://doi.org/10.1016/s0961-1290(01)89008-6
(2000). TEM: an introduction. III-Vs Review, 13 (6), 36-40. http://doi.org/10.1016/s0961-1290(01)80004-1
Vernon-Parry, K.D. (2000). Scanning electron microscopy: an introduction. III-Vs Review, 13 (4), 40-44. http://doi.org/10.1016/s0961-1290(00)80006-x
Naveed, A.T., Evans-Freeman, J.H., Vernon-Parry, K.D., Wright, A.C., Houghton, D.C., & Peaker, A.R. (2000). Erbium-doped Si1-xGex/Si structures for light emitting diodes. Semiconductor Science and Technology, 15 (2), 91-97. http://doi.org/10.1088/0268-1242/15/2/302
Bolingbroke, R.K., Furu, T., Juul Jensen, D., & Vernon-Parry, K. (1996). Annealing behaviour of dilute aluminium alloys following hot deformation. Materials Science and Technology, 12 (11), 897-903. http://doi.org/10.1179/mst.1996.12.11.897
Vernon-Parry, K.D., Furu, T., Jensen, D.J., & Humphreys, F.J. (1996). Deformation microstructure and texture in hot worked aluminium alloys. Materials Science and Technology, 12 (11), 889-896. http://doi.org/10.1179/mst.1996.12.11.889
Lai, H.C., Vernon-Parry, K.D., Chern, J.D., & Grovenor, C.R.M. (1991). Deposition of thallium-based superconducting thin films by a simple thermal evaporation method. Superconductor Science and Technology, 4 (7), 306-311. http://doi.org/10.1088/0953-2048/4/7/007
Grovenor, C.R.M., Romano, L.T., Mingard, K.P., Lai, H.-.C., & Vernon-Parry, K.D. (1991). A comparative study of the electrical properties and microstructure of polycrystalline YBaCuO and thallium-based thin films. Journal of Materials Research, 6 (7), 1408-1414. http://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.1991.1408
Vernon-Parry, K.D., Grovenor, C.R.M., Needham, N., & English, T. (1988). Distribution of yttrium in aluminium containing stainless steels and its effect on structure of oxide layers. Materials Science and Technology, 4 (5), 461-464. http://doi.org/10.1179/mst.1988.4.5.461
Vernon-Parry, K.D., Grovenor, C.R.M., Needham, N., & English, T. (1987). DISTRIBUTION OF YTTRIUM IN ALUMINIUM CONTAINING STAINLESS STEELS AND ITS EFFECT ON STRUCTURE OF OXIDE LAYERS. Materials Science and Technology, 4 (5), 461-464.
Conference papers
Vernon-Parry, K., & Jose, A. (2017). The effect of increasing Learner Autonomy in engineering laboratories for Foundation Year students. Proceedings of 45th SEFI Conference, 1378-1384. https://www.sefi.be/wp-content/uploads/SEFI_2017_PROCEEDINGS.pdf
Ayomanor, B.O., & Vernon-Parry, K. (2016). Potential Synthesis of Solar-Grade Silicon from Rice Husk Ash. Solid State Phenomena, 242 (242), 41-47. http://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/SSP.242.41
Power, S., Nortcliffe, A., Vernon-Parry, K., & Schenkel, T. (2016). Engineering learning through aerospace engineering. In Annual International Conference on Engineering Education & Teaching, Athens, Greece. Athens Institute for Education and Research: http://www.atiner.gr/papers/ENGEDU2016-2003.pdf
Goodwin-Jones, J., Nortcliffe, A., & Vernon-Parry, K. (2016). What does good engineering laboratory pedagogy look like? In Engineering education on top of the world : industry university cooperation : 44 th SEFI Conference Proceedings. SEFI: http://www.sefi.be/conference-2016/papers/Engineering_Education_Research/nortcliffe-what-does-good-engineering-laboratory-pedagogy-look-like-18_a.pdf
Langley, J., Le Maitre, C., Vernon-Parry, K., Lockley, E., Westerman, J., Smith, J., ... Choppin, S. (2012). Being interdisciplinary..... creating a culture for the academics of tomorrow. In Understanding Interdisciplinarity: theory and practice - An International Conference, Sheffield, 12 June 2012 - 14 June 2012.
Vernon-Parry, K.D., Evans-Freeman, J.H., Mitromara, N., & May, P.W. (2008). High Resolution Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy of p-n diodes formed from p-type polycrystalline diamond on n-type silicon. In Conference on Optoelectronic and Microelectronic Materials and Devices, Sydney, Australia, 28 July 2008 - 1 September 2008. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/COMMAD.2008.4802081
Evans-Freeman, J.H., & Vernon-Parry, K. (2005). Optical and electrical activity of defects in rare earth implanted Si. Optical materials. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.optmat.2005.09.069
Evans-Freeman, J.H., Emiroglu, D., Vernon-Parry, K., Murphy, J.D., & Wilshaw, P.R. (2005). High resolution deep level transient spectroscopy applied to extended defects in silicon. Journal of physics. Condensed matter, 17 (22). http://doi.org/10.1088/0953-8984/17/22/009
Evans-Freeman, J.H., Emiroglu, D., & Vernon-Parry, K.D. (2004). High resolution deep level transient spectroscopy and process-induced defects in silicon. Materials Science and Engineering: B, 114-115, 307-311. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.mseb.2004.07.050
Vernon-Parry, K.D., Galloway, S., & Davies, G. (2004). Correlation between G-line luminescence and structure of grain boundaries in electron-irradiated EFG silicon. Design and Nature, 6, 421-424.
Hayama, S., Davies, G., Tan, J., Markevich, V.P., Peaker, A.R., Evans-Freeman, J., ... Abrosimov, N.V. (2003). Carbon-related centres in irradiated SiGe alloys. Physica B: Condensed Matter, 340-342, 823-826. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.physb.2003.09.222
Vernon–Parry, K.D., Evans–Freeman, J.H., Hawkins, I.D., Peaker, A.R., & Dawson, P. (2001). Separation of dislocation- and erbium-related photoluminescence by time resolved studies. Materials Science and Engineering: B, 81 (1-3), 56-58. http://doi.org/10.1016/s0921-5107(00)00704-2
Vernon-Parry, K.D., Hawkins, I.D., Evans-Freeman, J.H., Dawson, P., & Peaker, A.R. (2001). A comparison of the photoluminescence decay of erbium in silicon and silicon-germanium. Materials Science and Engineering: B, 81 (1-3), 164-166. http://doi.org/10.1016/s0921-5107(00)00713-3
Vernon-Parry, K.D., Abd-El-Rahman, K.F., Brough, I., Evans-Freeman, J.H., Zhang, J., & Peaker, A.R. (2001). The use of electron back-scattered diffraction to study the regrowth of amorphised silicon-based heterostructures. Materials Science in Semiconductor Processing, 4 (1-3), 121-123. http://doi.org/10.1016/s1369-8001(00)00099-8
Vernon-Parry, K.D., Brough, I., & Evans-Freeman, J.H. (1999). A novel method for studying the regrowth of implanted silicon. MICROSCOPY OF SEMICONDUCTING MATERIALS 1999, PROCEEDINGS, (164), 473-476.
Peaker, A.R., Evans-Freeman, J.H., Kan, P.Y.Y., Rubaldo, L., Hawkins, I.D., Vernon-Parry, K.D., & Dobaczewski, L. (1999). Hydrogen reactions with electron irradiation damage in silicon. Physica B: Condensed Matter, 273-274, 243-246. http://doi.org/10.1016/s0921-4526(99)00463-9
Book chapters
Forder, S., & Vernon-Parry, K. (2010). Enhancing learner development through theuse of blogs. In Anagnostopoulou, K., & Parmar, D. (Eds.) Supporting the first year student experience through the use of learning technologies. (pp. 42-43). Middlesex University
Forder, S., Malone, C., & Vernon-Parry, K. (2010). To support student learning by embedding writing skills. In Bramhall, M., O'Leary, C., & Corker, C. (Eds.) CPLA Case Studies. Vol.2. (pp. 77-88). Centre for Promoting Learner Autonomy, Sheffield Hallam University: http://extra.shu.ac.uk/cetl/cpla/resources.html
Cullis, A.G., & Midgley, P.A. (n.d.). Microscopy of Semiconducting Materials 2003. CRC Press: http://doi.org/10.1201/9781351074636
Theses / Dissertations
Elsherif, O.S. (2012). Electrical characterisation of defects in wide bandgap semiconductors. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Evans-Freeman, J., Dharmadasa, I., & Vernon-Parry, K.
Diso, D.G. (2011). Research and development of CdTe based thin film PV solar cells. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Dharmadasa, I., & Vernon-Parry, K.
Mitromara, N. (2008). Electronic properties of defects in silicon and related materials. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Evans-Freeman, J., & Vernon-Parry, K.
Other activities
Governor at UTC City
Postgraduate supervision
PhD students working with me currently are: Ali ElHaji (GaN) and Osama El-Sherif (diamond and GaN).