CAREER: Saturated and Unsaturated Silicon for Single-Molecule Electronics

在化学部化学结构、动力学机制B项目的支持下，加州大学滨江分校（UCR）化学系的Timothy Su正在开发最小长度尺度的硅基电子器件（即，分子）。硅是现代微电子和新兴量子电子技术的标志性材料。随着硅电子器件变得越来越小型化，了解如何设计和控制分子长度尺度的硅结构以提供定制的电子特性变得越来越重要。核心假设是，通过控制分子骨架的结构，可以使硅基分子电路具有高电阻、高导电性或电子可切换性，从而超过当前的分子电子技术。教育活动的重点是吸引和留住从小学到大学的STEM（科学、技术、工程和数学）管道中的弱势和代表性不足的学生。为了实现这一目标，学生创建的社交媒体视频将被用来：（1）提高学习成果，缩小UCR学生在STEM课程入门点的成绩差距，（2）创建网络基础设施，以消除化学概念和STEM职业的神秘性，（3）通过硅材料实验吸引当地5年级和6年级的学生参与科学，（4）扩大参与化学研究的范围。这些活动主要针对加州大学滨江学生的需求，这是一个指定的西班牙裔服务机构（HSI），超过50%的学生是佩尔助学金获得者，也是他们家庭中第一个参加4年制大学的学生。和集成的共轭分子硅到单分子电路研究与扫描隧道显微镜断裂结（STM-BJ）的方法。它将：（1）探索Ge原子掺入和簇二聚化对双环低聚硅烷绝缘体中的相消量子干涉（DQI）的影响，（2）使用机械刺激来促进或破坏聚硅烷主链内的弱分子内键合相互作用以获得可逆电导开关，以及（3）探测不饱和硅分子作为一种未开发的纳米电子材料，预计比它们的导电性高几个数量级。有机类似物这些努力旨在为主要研究者的计划奠定基础，以探索称为主群分子电子学的新兴工作领域。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

With support from the Chemical Structure, Dynamics & Mechanisms B Program of the Chemistry Division, Timothy Su of the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) is developing silicon-based electronics at the smallest length scales (i.e., molecules). Silicon is the hallmark material of modern microelectronics and emerging quantum electronic technologies. With silicon electronics becoming increasingly miniaturized, it is ever important to understand how the structure of silicon at molecular length scales can be designed and controlled to give tailored electronic properties. The central hypothesis is that by controlling the structure of the molecular backbone, silicon-based molecular circuits can be made to be highly resistive, highly conducting, or electronically switchable to extents that outperform current molecular electronic technologies. The educational activities focus on attracting and retaining disadvantaged and underrepresented students in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) pipeline from the elementary school level to the university level. Toward this goal, student-created social media videos will be leveraged to: (1) improve learning outcomes and close the achievement gap for UCR students at the entry point of their STEM coursework, (2) create a cyberinfrastructure to demystify chemical concepts and STEM careers, (3) engage local 5th and 6th grade students in science through silicon materials experiments, and (4) broaden participation in chemical research. These activities heavily target the needs of students at UC Riverside, a designated Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), where over fifty percent of students are Pell Grant recipients and the first in their families to attend a 4-year college.This proposal describes the synthesis, functionalization, and integration of conjugated molecular silicon into single-molecule circuits studied with a scanning tunneling microscopy break-junction (STM-BJ) approach. It will: (1) explore the impact of Ge-atom incorporation and cluster dimerization on destructive quantum interference (DQI) in bicyclic oligosilane insulators, (2) use mechanical stimuli to promote or disrupt weak intramolecular bonding interactions within the polysilane backbone to access reversible conductance switches, and (3) probe unsaturated silicon molecules as an unexplored class of nanoelectronic materials anticipated to be several orders of magnitude more conductive than their organic analogs. These efforts are aimed at establishing the foundation of the principal investigator’s program to explore an emerging area of work termed main group molecular electronics.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.