Collaborative Research: GOALI: Nanocrystal Formation and Morphology in Nonthermal Plasmas

合作研究：GOALI：非热等离子体中纳米晶体的形成和形态

• 批准号: 0500332
• 负责人: Uwe Kortshagen
• 金额: $ 36万
• 依托单位: University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-08-15 至 2010-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0500332&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; GOALI; Nanocrystal; Formation

Award AbstractCTS-0500332Principal Investigator: Uwe R. KortshagenInstitution: University of Minnesota - Twin Cities Proposal Title: Collaborative Research: GOALI: Nanocrystal Formation and Morphology in Nonthermal PlasmasCrystalline nanoparticles are intensely studied as building blocks for a wide variety of novel nanoscale systems and devices. Among nanoparticle materials silicon plays an important role due to its excellent electronic properties, its wide use in microelectronics manufacturing, its low toxicity, and the absence of environmental hazards. Low-pressure plasmas-partly ionized gases created at only a fraction of the atmospheric pressure-offer several unique properties that are highly beneficial for the synthesis of crystalline silicon nanoparticles. Plasmas allow for high processing rates based on the efficiency of direct gas-to-particle conversion. Compared to other gas phase processes, plasmas offer the advantage that particles are unipolarly negatively charged, which strongly suppresses or completely avoids detrimental agglomeration of nanoparticles. This Collaborative Research/GOALI project focuses on the study of a plasma process that was shown to yield high-quality silicon nanoparticles with highly unique virtually perfect cubic shapes. Particles are highly uniform in size and exhibit virtually no detectable crystal defects. Nanocrystals of this kind appear to be ideal building blocks for nanoscale devices such as novel vertical Schottky barrier transistors or light emitting devices. While the research will focus on a particular plasma process, the studies will help to answer much broader unresolved questions. Among those are how crystalline particles can be formed in a plasma environment that is close to room temperature, and why silicon particles would assume the highly unusual cubic shape, which is ideal for device applications but is not the equilibrium shape for pure silicon particles. The technical studies aim at finding the currently unknown relations between plasma proper-ties and the properties of the synthesized particles. The project pursues four goals: (1) the ex-perimental characterization of the plasma properties in the synthesis process; (2) the experimen-tal study of particle properties including their size distribution, particle crystallinity, and mor-phology; (3) the numerical study of the plasma properties and plasma dynamics caused by the presence of particles; and (4) the atomic simulation study of the relation between the process plasma conditions and the particle crystallinity and morphology. Tasks (1)-(3) will be pursued by the group at the University of Minnesota, task (4) by the group at the University of Maryland. The GOALI industrial partner is InnovaLight, Inc., based in St. Paul, MN, a company that pur-sues the development of solid state light sources based on silicon nanocrystals. The leverage provided by an NSF-IGERT project for "Nanoparticle Science and Engineer-ing" will enhance the broader impact of this project. The involvement of at least three graduate students and minority undergraduate students will foster the integration of research and training and the involvement of underrepresented groups. The close collaboration with InnovaLight will ensure rapid knowledge transfer to industry. This will enable and accelerate the development of potential commercial applications such as more energy-efficient light sources as well as elec-tronic devices and biomedical diagnostics. This project is co-funded by NSF and the U.S. De-partment of Energy under the NSF/DOE Partnership for Basic Plasma Science and Engineering.

奖励摘要-0500332主题研究者：Uwe R. Kortshageninstitution：明尼苏达大学 - 双城 - 双城提议标题：协作研究：纳米晶体：纳米晶体形成和非热等离子体的形态和形态学在非热等离子体晶体纳米纳米纳米纳米构成的构建范围内是构建大型的。在纳米颗粒材料中，硅在其出色的电子特性，在微电子制造中广泛使用，其低毒性以及没有环境危害的情况下起着重要作用。低压等离子电离气体仅在大气压力的一小部分中产生的几种独特特性，这些特性对晶体硅纳米颗粒的合成非常有益。等离子体可以根据直接气体到颗粒转换的效率进行高处理速率。与其他气相过程相比，等离子体具有一个优势，即颗粒是单极性负电荷的，这强烈抑制或完全避免了纳米颗粒的有害聚集。该协作研究/目标项目的重点是对等离子体过程的研究，该过程被证明可以产生具有高质量的硅纳米颗粒，这些纳米颗粒具有高度独特的几乎完美的立方形状。颗粒的大小高度均匀，几乎没有可检测到的晶体缺陷。这种纳米晶体似乎是纳米级设备（例如新型垂直雪花屏障晶体管或发光设备）的理想基础。尽管研究将重点放在特定的等离子体过程上，但研究将有助于回答更广泛的未解决问题。其中包括如何在接近室温的等离子体环境中形成结晶颗粒，以及为什么硅颗粒会假设高度不寻常的立方形状，这是设备应用的理想选择，但不是纯硅颗粒的平衡形状。技术研究旨在发现等离子体正确领域与合成颗粒的性质之间的目前未知的关系。该项目追求四个目标：（1）在合成过程中血浆特性的实质性表征； （2）粒子特性的实验研究研究，包括其尺寸分布，粒子结晶度和伪像； （3）由于存在颗粒而引起的血浆特性和血浆动力学的数值研究； （4）原子仿真研究对过程等离子体条件与颗粒结晶度和形态之间的关系。明尼苏达大学的小组将由马里兰大学的小组（4）进行任务（1） - （3）。 Goali工业合作伙伴是位于明尼苏达州圣保罗的Innavalight，Inc。，该公司是一家基于硅纳米晶体的固态光源的开发。 NSF-IGERT项目为“纳米颗粒科学和工程师”提供的杠杆作用将增强该项目的更广泛影响。至少三名研究生和少数族裔本科生的参与将促进研究和培训的整合以及代表性不足的群体的参与。与Innaallet的密切合作将确保知识快速转移到行业。这将实现和加速潜在的商业应用，例如更节能的光源以及Elec-tronic设备和生物医学诊断。 该项目由NSF与NSF/DOE基础等离子体科学与工程合作伙伴关系的美国能源拆分共同资助。