Fullerene-based electronic thin-films and devices

富勒烯是一种天然存在的碳的同素异形体，是一种具有良好尺寸的拓扑结构。最丰富的纳米结构碳是C60，其中60个碳原子键合成球形球，通常被称为巴基球。富勒烯这个名字是根据美国建筑师R。巴克·富勒以其基于五边形和六边形的许多创新建筑而闻名，这些建筑是各种形式的纳米碳的相同几何构建块。C60的物理性质和潜在的应用是近二十年来研究的热点之一。C60薄膜材料的高电子迁移率可能是最重要的物理特性，有望在电子器件（如场效应晶体管）和光电器件（如太阳能电池和有机发光二极管）中实现革命性应用。碳纳米技术被许多人认为是超越硅技术的主要技术平台之一，硅技术正在迅速接近许多基本极限。尽管在富勒烯研究方面取得了许多进展，特别是在开发用于化学和生物医学应用的许多不同形式的富勒烯衍生物方面，但固体富勒烯薄膜材料的集体电子现象尚不清楚。这一直是富勒烯基电子和光电子器件的开发和商业化的主要障碍。在本申请中，Z.H.卢提出了一个前沿的研究计划，涉及一个由五名精力充沛的研究生研究人员组成的团队，以克服富勒烯薄膜和器件实际应用中的挑战。拟议的研究课题是：1）工程的强大的富勒烯基薄膜; 2）在控制表面和界面形成的策略; 3）了解薄膜和异质结构中的电荷传输;和4）富勒烯基薄膜晶体管的发展。

As a naturally occurring substance and a newly discovered allotropy of carbons, fullerenes are topologically perfect nanostructures with well-defined sizes. The most abundant nanostructured carbon is C60, where 60 carbon atoms are bonded into a spherical ball which is often referred to as bucky-ball. The name fullerenes, was coined after the American architect R. Buckminster Fuller who was known for his many innovative architectural constructions based on pentagons and hexagons, the very same geometric building blocks for various forms of nanocarbons. C60's physical properties and potential applications have been among the most studied subjects in the last two decades. High electron mobility of C60 thin-film materials is perhaps the most important physical properties promising revolutionary applications in electronic devices such as field-effect transistors and optoelectronic devices such as solar cells and organic light-emitting diodes. Carbon nanotechnology is considered by many as one of the major technology platform to surpass silicon technology which is rapidly approaching many fundamental limits. Despite many progresses have been made in fullerene research, in particular in developing many diverse forms of fullerene derivatives for chemical and biomedical applications, the collective electronic phenomena of solid fullerene thin-film materials are not clear. This has been a major barrier in developing and commercialization of fullerene-based electronic and optoelectronic devices. In this application, Prof. Z.H. Lu puts forward a leading edge research program, involving a team of five energetic graduate student researchers, to conquer the challenges in practical application of fullerene-based thin-films and devices. The proposed research topics are: 1) engineering of robust fullerene-based thin-films; 2) strategies in controlling surface and interface formation; 3) understanding charge transport in thin-films and heterostructures; and 4) development of fullerene-based thin-film transistors.