Study of the formation of thin films materials and their properties

科学界有一股强大的动力，希望在纳米尺度上，即在原子、分子和超分子结构的水平上控制物质，以创造用于纳米技术的有用材料、设备和系统。化学家们在这一领域做出了巨大贡献，他们提出了组装、设计和整合分子和材料的新方法，这些方法可能对下一代电子设备（如芯片、硬盘驱动器存储器和节能显示器）的成本、速度和质量产生潜在影响。我们的研究项目以这样或那样的方式处理低维系统以及由于其表面修饰而导致的材料性能变化的重要性。本研究计划的第一个目标是在硅表面生产和表征功能薄膜。硅表面的湿化学被证明特别适合未来纳米技术“自下而上”制造策略的整合。在我们的工作中采用的方法显示了创造高质量薄膜的承诺，这些薄膜可以用于性能表征和设备制造。这是至关重要的，因为对这些材料的应用感兴趣的同事首先关心的是硅表面是否存在氧化物。氧化硅杂质的存在将对未来的器件性能产生很大的影响。最终，我们希望了解这些材料的形成，并将它们的结构和形态与它们的电化学/电子特性联系起来。

There is a strong drive in the scientific community to control matter on the nanometer length scale that is at the level of atoms, molecules, and supramolecular structures to create useful materials, devices and systems for application in nanotechnology. Chemists have contributed greatly to this area by proposing new ways to assemble, pattern and incorporate molecules and materials that can have potential impact on the cost, speed and quality of the next generation of electronic devices such as chips, hard drive memory and energy efficient monitors. Our research program deals in one way or another with low dimensionality systems and the importance of changes in material properties due to the modification of their surface. The first objective of this research program is to produce and characterize functional films on silicon surfaces. Wet chemistry on silicon surfaces was shown to be particular well suited for future integration in nanotechnology's "bottom-up" fabrication strategy. The approach taken in our work shows promises in creating good quality films that can then be used for property characterizations and device fabrication. This is paramount since the first concern of colleagues interested in applications for these materials is related to the presence of oxide at the silicon surface. The presence of silicon oxide impurities will have a great impact on the future device performance. Ultimately we wish to understand the formation of these materials and to relate their structures and morphology to their electrochemical/electronic properties.