GOALI: Nanomanufacturing of Atomically Precise Bipolar Electronic Devices

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The impact of atomically precise manufacturing on future economic activity cannot be overstated. In particular the development of atomically-precise bipolar electronic devices is a potentially disruptive technology, leading to job growth in manufacturing arenas where novel high-value applications can be exploited. It is expected that this development will also positively impact national security. Recent efforts show that precise placement of donor dopant atoms is feasible. This award will study the placement of acceptor dopant atoms with atomic precision and it should open pathways to empower a wide range of high-performance nanoelectronic devices, as well as potentially advance the development of quantum computation devices. A successful outcome would permit nanomanufacturing of a wide range of new bipolar devices with extraordinary performance characteristics. An atomically precise acceptor doping capability would enable new device regimes since both n-type and p-type regions would allow engineering new devices and circuit designs. Solving this problem would open new realms of unique device physics for later exploration. The collaborative effort with a proven nanotechnology industry partner will accelerate the rate of technology transfer and sharpen the focus on parts of the investigations that yield the most effective outcomes. This academic-small business collaboration offers opportunities for a graduate student to gain valuable experience in a well-established high-tech environment. The goal of the project is to demonstrate an acceptor as a p-type dopant for nanomanufacturing bipolar devices by atomically precise doping methods. This capability would enable new types of device regimes that offer unprecedented low-noise, high-bandwidth performances in analog electronic applications. Although atomically precise doping of n-type dopants has been demonstrated using phosphorous donors, the development of a suitable acceptor dopant species is unsolved since basic science questions remain unanswered. University researchers will address this problem by collaborating with the scientific staff of an industrial partner, which is the nation's leading small company in nanomanufacturing, using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) lithography tools to produce atomically precise nanostructures. An innovative ultra-high vacuum approach that produces alanes will be investigated. These studies will produce acceptor species that adsorbs selectively on patterns of clean Si dimers. This outcome is needed by the industrial partner to enable STM based nanomanufacturing steps. In addition to the absorption studies, low-temperature dopant activation processes and the prevention of deleterious diffusion effects using silicon molecular-beam-epitaxy technology will be explored. Also, electrical characterization investigations will be done to examine electrical properties of p-doped regions.