Fullerene-based electronic thin-films and devices

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

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.