NIRT: Functionalized Nanowires for Electromechanical and Optical Detection of Biomolecules with Ultrahigh Sensitivity and Specificity

纳米机电系统(NEMS)是一种最有前途的技术，可以实现以前所未有的灵敏度感知和控制我们所处的物理和化学环境的新设备。然而，NEMS在材料加工、器件设计、制造和集成方面也给工程师带来了前所未有的挑战。这一研究项目旨在提出一种创新的解决方案，以解决在纳米级批量制造机械和光学器件以及与外部探头对接的挑战。它将通过采用纳米线的气-液-固三相法、选择性催化纳米团簇沉积方法、基于间隔光刻的新型纳米间隙器件设计以及新型耦合结构来激发和检测纳米线的基模，从而实现基于纳米线的可寻址谐振器件阵列。这些纳米器件将通过吸附质量对共振频率的影响和通过表面增强拉曼光谱中的化学特征的光学检测来提供对化学物种的双功能检测。成功完成后，该项目将展示一种在纳米级批量制造的新范式。这项研究将对新兴的NEMS领域产生立竿见影的影响，并进一步使新一代设备能够被设计成在纳米级探测材料的性质。所提出的纳米线传感结构可能代表了能够同时提取质量信号和化学键信号的纳米器件的第一个例子，从而使得对多个物种的实时和并行确定性监测成为可能。这种设备可能会对药物发现、医疗诊断、蛋白质组学和生物制剂的环境检测等领域产生重大影响。这笔研究拨款将提供资金，支持新一代纳米制造工程师的教育。

Nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS) are emerging as a most promising technology to realize new devices to sense and control our physical and chemical environment with unprecedented sensitivity. However, NEMS also present engineers with unprecedented challenges in materials processing, device design, fabrication and integration. This research project aims to present an innovative solution to the challenges of batch fabrication of mechanical and optical devices at the nanoscale and interfacing with external probes. It will realize addressable arrays of nanowire-based resonant devices by employing the Vapor-Liquid-Solid method of nanowire, selective catalyst nanocluster deposition methods, novel nanogap device design based on spacer lithography, and novel coupling architectures to excite and detect the fundamental modes of the nanowires. These nanodevices will offer bifunctional detection of chemical species both through the effect of the adsorbed mass on the resonance frequency and through the optical detection of the chemical signature in surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy.Upon successful completion, the project will have demonstrated a new paradigm for batch fabrication at the nanoscale. The research will have immediate impact on the emerging field of NEMS and furthermore enable a new generation of devices to be designed to probe the properties of materials at the nanoscale. The nanowire sensing structures proposed may represent the first example of a nanodevice capable of extracting mass signal and chemical bonding signal simultaneously so that the real-time and parallel deterministic monitoring of multiple species will be possible. Such devices might significantly impact fields ranging as far as drug discovery, medical diagnosis, proteomics and environmental detection of biological agents. This research grant will provide funds to support the education of a new generation of nanoscale manufacturing engineers.