CRYSTALLOGRAPHY AND FUNCTIONAL EVOLUTION OF ATOMICALLY THIN CONFINED NANOWIRES

这项既定的职业研究计划涉及在单壁碳纳米管内形成的一到四个原子厚的一维“极端纳米线”的空间和时间分辨结晶学、结构改进和功能演变-原子光滑的模板，其热稳定性高达1130摄氏度。这是可伸缩制造的实际极限，是材料科学的“最终前沿”，也是相对于石墨烯或从金属硫化物及其类似物衍生的无机类似物等二维结构的下一个也是最终最低维度。它将讨论原子调控晶体生长的四个主要方面，这些方面被认为是对其发展最关键的：具有逐个原子敏感性的三维结晶学；处理纳米受限相变材料的特殊情况的四维结晶学，这些材料在非易失性存储器中具有潜在的用途；基于从前述结构研究获得的增强信息的结构改进；以及薄膜器件的开发，可能是对准的，也可能是未对准的，这既是为了基本性能评估(包括新物理的几个方面)，也是为了创造在太阳能电池、化学传感器、燃料电池、电池和催化剂等薄膜器件中潜在开发的“原则证明”器件，所有这些都可能带来经济效益。该项目预计将在华威以及牛津、维也纳、华沙、PAU和北京的项目合作伙伴网络的技术开发中发挥重要作用。正在研究的材料的“终极尺度”物理性质将测试并帮助改进目前可用的最灵敏的表征方法，特别是高性能电子显微镜、相关的光谱方法、原位低温成像、原位电阻/电导率测量、高性能扫描探针显微镜和薄膜器件制造。这个项目预计将对目前快速发展的时间分辨4D研究中的高性能电子显微镜领域产生非常重要的影响，在该领域中，我将利用牛津/钻石和北京的超快成像和衍射能力，并利用直接电子检测在快速和更定量的成像研究中的最新发展。在这方面，特殊类别的NC-PCM将提供一个终极测试，即字面上所观察到的最小尺度(即1 nm)相变材料，因此这些实验将以有史以来可能尝试的最小尺度来检验可逆和不可逆相的形成。我开发的新的电子衍射方案还将允许我们‘放大’模板单壁碳纳米管的束和薄膜中的相变，从而能够在晶体/玻璃相变的同时原位测量电阻和电导率的变化，并评估它们的可逆性。任何可开发的物理特性都将在简单的测辐射热型设备中进行评估，这些设备将用于进一步的物理测试，也将被用作可开发的“原则证明”设备。这些研究将根据项目需要利用华威大学提供的许多最先进的设施，并通过设在牛津、维也纳、华沙、PAU和北京的项目合作伙伴网络获得更多专门的专业知识和信息，所有这些人都对技术开发、互惠表征以及开发/扩大自己的活动做出贡献，这些活动将成为华威独一无二的世界领先企业。PI将领导来自英国的这些活动，然后可能通过从事这一补充但超越石墨烯的研究，为其在2D纳米材料方面的主导地位增加一维纳米结构。

This Established Career Fellowship proposal concerns the spatial and time resolved crystallography, structural refinement and functional evolution of one to four atom thick 1D 'Extreme Nanowires' formed inside single walled carbon nanotubes - atomically smooth templates that are thermally robust up to 1130 degrees Centigrade. This is at the practical limit of scalable fabrication, a 'Final Frontier' of materials science and the next and ultimate lowest dimension relative to two-dimensional structures such as graphene or inorganic analogues derived from metal sulphides and similar. It will address the four major aspects of atomically regulated crystal growth deemed to be the most critical in terms of their development: three-dimensional crystallography with atom-by-atom sensitivity; four-dimensional crystallography, addressing the special case of nano-Confined Phase Change Materials, which have potential utility in Non-Volatile Memory; structural refinement based on enhanced information obtained from the forgoing structural studies; and the development of thin film devices, which may be either aligned or misaligned, both for fundamental properties evaluation - including several aspects of Novel Physics - but also for 'Proof of Principle' device creation for potential exploitation in thin film devices including solar cells, chemical sensors, fuel cells, batteries and catalysts, all of which may bring economic benefits.This project is expected to play a significant role in techniques development both in Warwick and through the Project Partner network based in Oxford, Vienna, Warsaw, Pau and Beijing. The 'Ultimate Scale' physical nature of the materials under examination will both test and help improve the most sensitive characterisation methodologies currently available, especially high performance electron microscopy, associated spectroscopic methods, in situ low-temperature imaging, in situ resistance/conductivity measurements, high performance scanning probe microscopies and thin film device fabrication. This project is expected to have in particular a very significant impact on the current rapidly developing field in high-performance electron microscopy in time-resolved 4D studies in which I will exploit ultrafast imaging and diffraction capabilities available in both Oxford/Diamond and Beijing, taking advantage also of the latest developments in Direct Electron Detection in rapid and more quantitative imaging studies. In this regard, the special category of nC-PCMs will provide an ultimate test being literally the smallest scale (i.e. 1 nm) Phase Change Materials ever observed and these experiments will therefore examine reversible and irreversible phase formation at the smallest scale ever likely to be attempted. The new electron diffraction protocol that I have developed will also allow us to 'scale up' phase transformation in bundles and thin films of the template SWNTs enabling resistance and conductivity changes to be measured in situ at the same time as crystalline/glass transformations and to assess their reversibility. Any exploitable physical properties will then be assessed in simple bolometric-type devices that will be used both in further physical testing but also as exploitable 'Proof of Principle' devices.These studies will make use of the many state-of-the-art facilities available at the University of Warwick as the project requires but also more dedicated expertise and information available through a Project Partner network based in the Oxford, Vienna, Warsaw, Pau and Beijing all of whom contribute to and benefit from techniques development, reciprocal characterisation and from developing/expanding their own activities in what will be a unique World-leading enterprise lead from Warwick. The PI will lead these activities from the UK which can then potentially add 1D nanostructures to its dominance in 2D Nanomaterials by pursuing this complementary but 'Beyond Graphene' research.