Electrical Transport Studies on Functionalized Carbon Nanotube Devices and Thin-Films

碳纳米管是为数不多的几种纳米电子材料之一，这些材料推动了世界各地学术、政府和工业实验室前所未有的研究活动。这项工作的主要动机是为电子学寻找新的纳米器件范例。本研究项目就是在这样的背景下开展的，旨在进一步推进单壁碳纳米管的物理和化学研究。纳米管研究的三个快速发展领域将被研究：1)中红外(Mid-IR)的光学导电性；2)用于制造单动电子源的带到带隧道器件；3)利用功能化的SWNT场效应器件来解析单一催化反应事件的化学传感器。对于这些项目，新的纳米设备将使用申请人实验室开发的工艺结合借鉴微电子学的其他技术来制造。 目的1了解和控制纳米管薄膜巨大的中红外活性。它针对的是关于由于连续带内吸收带和离散声子态之间的量子干涉而在该光谱区域存在Fano共振的特定项目。这项工作将探索共价键引起的晶格无序的影响，并将寻找调制连续谱带和放大Fano带的方法，这对太赫兹电子学和通信具有潜在的兴趣。 目标2是测试在单个纳米管器件中使用带到带隧道的载流子带通能量过滤的原理。我们将验证这样一个假设，即在双栅纳米管器件中可以实现电子分布的有效冷却。这部分研究的目标是长期可交付的成果，如以较低能量耗散运行的逻辑器件和光源，以及能够在室温下产生强烈单动电子束的新电子场发射源，这可能会对先进的光谱仪和显微镜产生极大的兴趣。 目的3继续研究用于分子传感器的共价功能化单壁碳纳米管的性质。不同的化学基团将被用作共价桥梁，以探测晶体管配置中附着在单壁碳纳米管上的活性催化位置。可交付物是用于研究多相催化的单一催化事件的检测器。 这些项目是从表面和界面化学、材料、纳米科学和固态化学和物理中借用的多学科和混合概念。该项目具有很高的创新性，将作为主要的培训平台，培养电子材料、器件原理和制造领域的高素质人才。

The carbon nanotube is among a short list of nanoelectronic materials that have fuelled an unprecedented level of research activity in academic, government and industrial labs around the world. The work is mainly motivated by the search for new nanodevice paradigms for electronics. This research program takes place in this context and aims to advance further the physics and chemistry of the single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT). Three fast growing areas of nanotube research will be researched: 1) Optical conductivity in the Mid-infrared (Mid-IR); 2) Band-to-band tunnelling devices for making mono-kinetic electron sources; 3) Chemical sensors for resolving single catalytic reaction events using functionalized SWNT field-effect devices. For these projects, new nanodevices will be fabricated using processes developed in the lab of the applicant combined with other techniques borrowed from microelectronics. Objective 1 aims at understanding and controlling the huge Mid-IR activity of nanotube thin-films. It targets specific projects about the presence of Fano resonances in this spectral region due to a quantum interference between the continuum intra-band absorption band and discrete phonon states. This work will explore the influence of lattice disorder induced by covalent bonding and will search for ways to modulate the continuum band and amplify the Fano bands, which is of potential interest for THz electronics and communication. Objective 2 is to test the principles of band-pass energy filtering of carriers using band-to-band tunnelling in individual nanotube devices. We will verify the hypothesis that an effective cooling of the electron distribution can be achieved in a dual gate nanotube device. This part of the research targets deliverables in the long term, such as logic devices and light sources operating with lower energy dissipation, as well as new electron field-emission sources capable of producing at room temperature intense beams of mono-kinetic electrons, with potentially high interest for advancing spectrometers and microscopes. Objective 3 concerns a continuing investigation on the properties of covalently functionalized SWNTs for molecular sensors. Different chemical groups will be used as covalent bridges to sense active catalytic sites attached to the SWNT in a transistor configuration. The deliverable is a detector of single catalytic events to study heterogeneous catalysis. These projects are multidisciplinary and blend concepts borrowed from surface and interface chemistry, materials, nanoscience, and solid-state chemistry and physics. The program is highly innovative and will serve as the main training platform to develop highly qualified personal for the area of electronic materials and of device principles and fabrication.