FUNCTIONAL NANOWIRES, NANOWIRE HETEROSTRUCTURES AND THREE-DIMENSIONAL NANOWIRE NETWORKS

半导体工业的ITRS路线图已经确定了半导体纳米线作为一种可能的途径，通过这种途径，摩尔定律的尺寸缩放可以扩展到更小的尺寸。在未来的半导体技术中，纳米线可以用作逻辑元件和存储元件，器件尺寸小于10 nm。因此，纳米线的研究领域是特别活跃的，目前，可以预期提供真实的应用在thedium到长期。在这个奖学金，我将解决两个关键问题，必须解决，如果纳米线的应用是在电子行业的影响：（i）如何才能纳米线互连，形成有用的电路？(ii)什么样的独特功能特性可以被设计成纳米线，可以在应用中利用？解决这些问题的第一个实验将集中在使用有机支架沉积（OSD）的三维金属纳米线网络的生长。特别是，我们将研究磁性纳米线的生长与OSD的最终目的是创造一个三维磁存储介质的高密度计算机存储器的应用。实验，以解决第二个问题将集中在半导体和超导纳米线。对于半导体纳米线，我们将使用已建立的纳米粒子种子分子束外延（NS-MBE）技术，并将其扩展到各种III-V族和II-VI族材料。使用NS-MBE，我们将能够简单地通过在生长过程中改变前体材料来调节纳米线沿着其长度的性质。(This技术已经被证明在InP/InAs系统中产生原子级尖锐的材料界面。因此，NS-MBE为我们提供了一个工具包，用于研究降维对许多功能材料和异质结构的作用，包括（例如）稀磁半导体和异质结构光子器件。超导纳米线将使用聚焦离子束和OSD技术生长。这些纳米线，显示了一系列新的物理现象，将被研究的应用程序作为单光子探测器用于红外量子密钥分配系统和量子电流标准。

The ITRS roadmap for the semiconductor industry has identified semiconducting nanowires as a possible route by whichthe size-scaling of Moore's Law can be extended to yet smaller dimensions. Nanowires could be used both as the logicelements and the memory elements in a future semiconductor technology with device dimensions below 10 nm. The fieldof nanowire research is therefore particularly active at present and can be expected to deliver real applications in themedium to long term.In this fellowship I will address two key issues which must be resolved if nanowire applications are to make an impact inthe electronics sector:(i) How can nanowires be interconnected to form useful circuits?(ii) What unique functional properties can be engineered into nanowires that can be exploited in applications?Experiments to address the first of these issues will focus on using organic scaffold deposition (OSD) for growth of three-dimensional metallic nanowire networks. In particular we will study the growth of magnetic nanowires using OSD with the ultimate aim of creating a three-dimensional magnetic storage medium for high-density computer memory applications.Experiments to address the second issue will concentrate on semiconducting and superconducting nanowires. For semiconducting nanowires we will use the established nanoparticle-seeded molecular beam epitaxy (NS-MBE) technique and extend it to a variety of III-V and II-VI materials. Using NS-MBE we will be able to modulate the properties of the nanowire along its length simply by changing the precursor material during growth. (This technique has already been demonstrated to result in atomically sharp materials interfaces in the InP/InAs system.) NS-MBE therefore gives us a toolkit for studying the role of reduced dimensionality on a number of functional materials and heterostructures, including (for example) dilute magnetic semiconductors and heterostructure photonic devices.Superconducting nanowires will be grown using focussed-ion-beam and OSD techniques. These nanowires, which display a range of new physical phenomena, will be studied for applications as single photon detectors for use in infra-red quantum key distribution systems and as quantum current standards.