ABOVE:(a) A SWNT on an H-Si(100) surface, before (a) and after (c) a HfB2 nanowire is written across it

ABOVE:(a) A SWNT on an H-Si(100) surface, before (a) and after (c) a HfB2 nanowire is written across it. Log(I) vs. V spectra maps shown in (b) and (c) show clear metallic behavior where the HfB2 nanowire crosses the nanotube. (e) Another SWNT that has been positioned on top of a previously written HfB2 feature. STM spectroscopy (inset) shows metal-induced gap states in the nanotube. (f) Manipulating the SWNT away from the HfB2 feature restores its semiconducting behavior.

Research Groups and Expertise

The academic senior investigators have wonderfully complementary expertise in electronic materials.

Bringing these investigators together in the Center will start the process of assembling the critical mass of chemists, chemical engineers, and materials scientists necessary to solve the grand challenge of advancing electronic materials technology through the use of chemical and mechanistic insights.

University of Florida

To date, collaborative work by Professor Lisa McElwee-White on materials deposition has produced more than 30 publications.  Prof. McElwee-White provides expertise in the design and synthesis of single-source CVD precursors for metal nitrides, metal carbides and metal films, which can be readily adapted into work on other deposition techniques such as surface plasmon mediated chemical deposition (SPMCD).  Her group will prepare new precursors and carry out mechanistic studies of their reactivity along with screening by MS, NMR kinetics, X-ray crystallography, TGA, and DFT calculations, to identify complexes that have appropriate fragmentation and reaction pathways to be candidates for deposition experiments.

Professor David Wei brings expertise on the use of polarized light to control the orientation of nanostructures on surfaces, a capability that will be crucial for the fabrication of nanoscale integrated circuits.  His group has developed strategies to synthesize nanostructures in situ on surface with controlled sizes, shapes and orientations, and quantitatively investigate the localized SPR-enhanced electromagnetic fields on the ‘hot spots’ of the pre-fabricated nanostructures. They also plan to conduct discrete dipole approximation (DDA) calculations to correlate the photothermal effects in SPMCD with the incident light’s wavelength, power, and polarization. 

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Professor Greg Girolami has published pioneering articles on the design principles of new chemical vapor deposition precursors and has carried out detailed mechanistic studies of film growth since the 1980s.  He brings considerable expertise on the discovery of new methods for the deposition of metal borides, metal carbides, and pure metals, and in carrying out both in situ and ex situ mechanistic studies of deposition processes.  He is collaborating with Professor Lyding on the development of new electron beam induced deposition (EBID) methods to create conductive junctions with carbon nanotubes down to the atomic limit.

Professor Joe Lyding has developed UHV STM technology and methods for nanofabrication on silicon and other semiconductor surfaces. His UHV STM design has been copied by many groups worldwide. He developed the atomic resolution hydrogen resist nanofabrication process, which serves as the core nanofabrication technique for many groups. His method for atomically clean deposition of nanostructures such as carbon nanotubes and graphene can also be generalized to the ultra-clean deposition of nearly any type of nanostructure onto any type of surface.

University of Georgia

Professor Marcus Lay provides expertise in the synthesis and characterization of ordered 2-D arrays of ordered carbon nanotubes and in the use of electrodeposition to form junctions between nanotube networks and nanoelectrodes.  Lay has published over 10 manuscripts on the bulk separation/purification of carbon nanotube soot and the formation of conductive thin-films composed of networks of ordered carbon nanotubes.  He has demonstrated the ability to control the density and orientation of carbon nanotubes within such arrays for the reproducible formation of electronic thin-films.