CAREER: Scalable Nanomanufacturing of Two-Dimensional Topological Materials for Quantum Device Applications

该学院早期职业发展（Career）资助支持二维拓扑材料的可扩展纳米制造及其结构和高性能量子器件性能控制的研究。目标材料为碲纳米带，在纳米电子学、中红外光子学和可穿戴传感器等领域具有潜在的应用前景。该项目采用基于液滴的流动反应器来确定这些材料的成核和生长机制，并获得所需的关键工艺-结构-性能知识，以优化生产具有所需性能的碲纳米带。制造高质量二维量子材料的能力对国家经济和促进繁荣和福利做出了重大贡献。该奖项与美国国家科学基金会的“量子飞跃大构想”相一致，因为二维晶体是传感器、计算和通信领域下一代量子技术的候选材料。该研究通过建立一个基于课程开发、大学教育的工业经验、K-12学生、妇女和未被充分代表的少数民族的包容性和灵活的教育和外展计划来全面补充，以培养高素质的未来制造业劳动力。该项目允许在材料科学、量子工程、纳米技术和先进制造方面的知识基础上取得进展。二维量子自旋霍尔材料，如碲纳米带，具有拓扑保护的边缘状态，可以以最小的功耗实现高速、节能电子器件的快速电荷传输。部署这些材料的关键挑战是在没有昂贵的外延衬底的情况下制造它们，并在实际应用中控制它们的尺寸，相位和缺陷含量。基于液滴反应器的连续流动工艺比传统的批量方法制造纳米材料具有多种优势。它能够实现出色的工艺均匀性和再现性，快速筛选反应参数，全自动控制，并以合理的成本提供高通量的定制产品。通常，流动合成的纳米材料是具有颗粒状形态的纳米晶体。利用流动工艺制造二维材料的科学认识和技术能力是缺失的。本研究旨在通过可扩展的与基材无关的连续纳米制造工艺，为实际的量子自旋霍尔器件应用发现碲纳米带的生产、工程和部署的基本基础。该项目的研究目标是：(i)建立基于液滴的流动制造能力，以生产具有可控性能的二维碲纳米带；（ii）开发基于物理的、数据驱动的理论框架，以指导和理解实验；（iii）表征材料和设备，以确定工艺-结构-性能-性能关系。连续流动过程采用原位和非原位表征相结合的理论探索，以了解对量子器件制造量身定制性能的碲纳米带的成核和生长至关重要的化学途径。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant supports research in the scalable nanomanufacturing of two-dimensional topological materials and the control of their structures and properties for high-performance quantum devices. The target materials are tellurene nanoribbons, which have potential applications in nanoelectronics, mid-infrared photonics, and wearable sensors. The project employs droplet-based flow reactors to identify the nucleation and growth mechanisms in these materials and gain the critical process-structure-property knowledge required for optimal production of tellurene nanoribbons with desired properties. The capability to manufacture high-quality two-dimensional quantum materials contributes significantly to the nation's economy and advances prosperity and welfare. The award aligns well with NSF's Quantum Leap Big Idea because two-dimensional crystals are candidate materials for next-generation quantum technologies in sensors, computing and communications. The research is holistically complemented by establishing an inclusive and flexible educational and outreach program based on curriculum development, industrial experience in college education, K-12 students, women and underrepresented minority outreach for training a high-quality future manufacturing workforce. This project allows advances in the knowledge base in material science, quantum engineering, nanotechnology and advanced manufacturing.Two-dimensional quantum spin Hall materials, such as tellurene nanoribbons, host topologically protected edge states that can enable fast charge transport with minimum power dissipation for high-speed, energy-efficient electronics. The critical challenges to deploying these materials are to manufacture them without expensive epitaxial substrates and control over their dimensions, phase, and defect content for practical applications. Continuous flow processes based on droplet reactors present multiple benefits over conventional batch approaches to fabricate nanomaterials. It enables excellent process homogeneity and reproducibility, rapid screening of reaction parameters, fully automated control, and customized products with high throughput at reasonable costs. Typically, the flow-synthesized nanomaterials are nanocrystals with particle-like morphologies. The scientific understanding and technical capability for manufacturing two-dimensional materials using flow processes are missing. This research is to discover the fundamental basis for producing, engineering, and deploying tellurene nanoribbons for practical quantum spin Hall device applications through scalable substrate-agnostic continuous nanomanufacturing processes. This project's research objectives are to (i) establish the droplet-based flow manufacturing capability for producing two-dimensional tellurene nanoribbons with controlled properties, (ii) develop a physics-based, data-driven theoretical framework for guiding and understanding the experiments, and (iii) characterize the materials and devices to identify the process-structure-property-performance relations. The continuous flow process employs in-situ and ex-situ characterization combined with theoretical exploration to understand the chemical pathways critical to engineering the nucleation and growth of tellurene nanoribbons with tailored properties for quantum device manufacturing.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.