Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Commons^™

Purely Electronic Switching With High Uniformity, Resistance Tunability, And Good Retention In Pt-Dispersed Sio2 Thin Films For Reram, Albert Chen

Albert B Chen

Resistance switching memory operating by a purely electronic switching mechanism, which was first realized in Pt-dispersed SiO2 thin films, satisfies criteria including high uniformity, fast switching speed, and long retention for non-volatile memory application. This resistive element obeys Ohm's law for the area dependence, but its resistance exponentially increases with the film thickness, which provides new freedom to tailor the device characteristics.

Metamaterials On Parylene Thin Film Substrates: Design, Fabrication, And Characterization At Terahertz Frequency, Xianliang Liu, Samuel Macnaughton, David Shrekenhamer, Hu Tao, Selvapraba Selvarasah, Atcha Totachawattana, Richard Averitt, Mehmet Dokmeci, Sameer Sonkusale, Willie Padilla

Mehmet R. Dokmeci

We design, fabricate, and characterize terahertz (THz) resonant metamaterials on parylene free-standing thin film substrates. Several different metamaterials are investigated and our results show strong electromagnetic responses at THz frequencies ranging from 500 GHz to 2.5 THz. The complex frequency dependent dielectric properties of parylene are determined from inversion of reflection and transmission data, thus indicating that parylene is an ideal low loss substrate or coating material. The biostable and biocompatible properties of parylene coupled with the multifunctional exotic properties of metamaterials indicate great potential for medical purposes such as THz imaging for skin cancer detection.

Direct Measurement Of Graphene Adhesion On Silicon Surface By Intercalation Of Nanoparticles, Zong Zong, Chia-Ling Chen, Mehmet Dokmeci, Kai-Tak Wan

Mehmet R. Dokmeci

We report a technique to characterize adhesion of monolayered/multilayered graphene sheets on silicon wafer. Nanoparticles trapped at graphene-silicon interface act as point wedges to support axisymmetric blisters. Local adhesion strength is found by measuring the particle height and blister radius using a scanning electron microscope. Adhesion energy of the typical graphene-silicon interface is measured to be 151±28 mJ/m2. The proposed method and our measurements provide insights in fabrication and reliability of microelectromechanical/nanoelectromechanical systems.

Low-Voltage And Short-Channel Pentacene Field-Effect Transistors With Top-Contact Geometry Using Parylene-C Shadow Masks, Yoonyoung Chung, Boris Murmann, Selvapraba Selvarasah, Mehmet Dokmeci, Zhenan Bao

Mehmet R. Dokmeci

We have fabricated high-performance top-contact pentacene field-effect transistors using a nanometer-scale gate dielectric and parylene-C shadow masks. The high-capacitance gate dielectric, deposited by atomic layer deposition of aluminum oxide, resulted in a low operating voltage of 2.5 V. The flexible and conformal parylene-C shadow masks allowed fabrication of transistors with channel lengths of L = 5, 10, and 20 μm. The field-effect mobility of the transistors was μ = 1.14 (±0.08) cm²/V s on average, and the IMAX/IMIN ratio was greater than 10⁶.

Mechanical And Electrical Evaluation Of Parylene-C Encapsulated Carbon Nanotube Networks On A Flexible Substrate, Chia-Ling Chen, Ernesto Lopez, Yung-Joon Jung, Sinan Müftü, Selvapraba Selvarasah, Mehmet Dokmeci

Sinan Müftü

Carbon nanotube networks are an emerging conductive nanomaterial with applications including thin film transistors, interconnects, and sensors. In this letter, we demonstrate the fabrication of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) networks on a flexible polymer substrate and then provide encapsulation utilizing a thin parylene-C layer. The encapsulated SWNT network was subjected to tensile tests while its electrical resistance was monitored. Tests showed a linear-elastic response up to a strain value of 2.8% and nearly linear change in electrical resistance in the 0%–2% strain range. The networks’ electrical resistance was monitored during load-unload tests of up to 100 cycles and was hysteresis-free.

Investigation Of Electrical Transport In Hydrogenated Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes, Adam Friedman, Hyunkyung Chun, Don Heiman, Yung Jung, Latika Menon

Latika Menon

Highly disordered multiwalled carbon nanotubes of large outer diameter (~60 nm) fabricated by means of chemical vapor deposition process inside porous alumina templates exhibit ferromagnetism when annealed in a H2/Ar atmosphere. In the presence of an applied magnetic field, there is a transition from positive to negative magnetoresistance. The transition may be explained in terms of the Bright model for ordered and disordered carbon structures. Additionally, temperature dependent electrical transport experiments exhibit a zero-bias anomaly at low temperature.

Separation Modes In Microcontacts Identified By The Rate Dependence Of The Pull-Off Force, L. Chen, Nicol Mcgruer, George Adams, Yan Du

Nicol E. McGruer

We report the observation of two distinct modes of rate-dependent behavior during contact cycling tests. One is a higher pull-off force at low cycling rates and the other is a higher pull-off force at high cycling rates. Subsequent investigation of these contacts using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) demonstrates that these two rate-dependent modes can be related to brittle and ductile separation modes. The former behavior is indicative of brittle separation, whereas the latter accompanies ductile separation. Thus by monitoring the rate dependence of the pull-off force, the type of separation mode can be identified during cycling without interrupting the test …

Parallel Arrays Of Individually Addressable Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Field-Effect Transistors, Sarah Lastella, Govind Mallick, Raymond Woo, Shashi Karna, David Rider, Ian Manners, Yung-Joon Jung, Chang Ryu, Pulickel Ajayan

Yung Joon Jung

High-throughput field-effect transistors (FETs) containing over 300 disentangled, high-purity chemical-vapor-deposition-grown single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) channels have been fabricated in a three-step process that creates more than 160 individually addressable devices on a single silicon chip. This scheme gives a 96% device yield with output currents averaging 5.4 mA and reaching up to 17 mA at a 300 mV bias. Entirely semiconducting FETs are easily realized by a high current selective destruction of metallic tubes. The excellent dispersity and nearly-defect-free quality of the SWNT channels make these devices also useful for nanoscale chemical and biological sensor applications.

Toxicity Of Cdse Nanoparticles In Caco-2 Cell Cultures, Lin Wang, Dattatri Nagesha, Selvapraba Selvarasah, Mehmet Dokmeci, Rebecca Carrier

Mehmet R. Dokmeci

Background
Potential routes of nanomaterial exposure include inhalation, dermal contact, and ingestion. Toxicology of inhalation of ultra-fine particles has been extensively studied; however, risks of nanomaterial exposure via ingestion are currently almost unknown. Using enterocyte-like Caco-2 cells as a small intestine epithelial model, the possible toxicity of CdSe quantum dot (QD) exposure via ingestion was investigated. Effect of simulated gastric fluid treatment on CdSe QD cytotoxicity was also studied.

Results
Commercially available CdSe QDs, which have a ZnS shell and poly-ethylene glycol (PEG) coating, and in-house prepared surfactant coated CdSe QDs were dosed to Caco-2 cells. Cell viability and attachment …

Nanoengineering Of A Negative-Index Binary-Staircase Lens For The Optics Regime, Bernard Didier Casse, Ravinder Banyal, W. Lu, Y. Huang, Selvapraba Selvarasah, Mehmet Dokmeci, Srinivas Sridhar

Srinivas Sridhar

We show that a binary-staircase optical element can be engineered to exhibit an effective negative index of refraction, thereby expanding the range of optical properties theoretically available for future optoelectronic devices. The mechanism for achieving a negative-index lens is based on exploiting the periodicity of the surface corrugation. By designing and nanofabricating a planoconcave binary-staircase lens in the InP/InGaAsP platform, we have experimentally demonstrated at 1.55 μm that such negative-index concave lenses can focus plane waves. The beam propagation in the lens was studied experimentally and was in excellent agreement with the three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain numerical simulations.