NER: Fabricating Heterogeneous Nanorods by Physical Vapor Deposition

本课题的目标是开发一种简单通用的方法，通过多层掠角沉积制备三维非均质纳米棒（直径10 - 100nm）结构。该方法是一种低温多层物理气相沉积工艺，可以从多种材料（包括金属、半导体、绝缘体、复合材料和陶瓷）中形成非均相纳米棒。在这个项目中，将展示两种不同的结构：金属A/金属B和超导体/绝缘体纳米棒结构。研究纳米棒形成的生长机制，以及不同生长条件对纳米棒尺寸、形状和均匀性的影响。采用胶体单层或电子束光刻方法制备的二维规则模板阵列也将控制纳米棒阵列的质量。如果该方法成功，将为研究人员通过简单改变蒸发材料来获取和设计不同的新型多层纳米结构打开一扇大门，并将催化新型纳米电子器件的制造和新型功能化材料的设计取得快速创新的进展。这些新型器件可用于制造速度更快的计算机、密度更高的存储介质、更可靠、灵敏度更高的化学生物传感器等。该新型功能化多层材料可用于靶向给药和肿瘤治疗、节能涂层等。这些应用将有助于恢复强劲的经济，改善公共医疗，用更好的武器打击恐怖分子，这些都是每个美国人当前关心的问题。

The objective of this project is to develop a simple and generic method to fabricate three-dimensional heterogeneous nanorod (10 - 100 nm in diameter) structures by multilayer glancing angle deposition. This method is a low temperature multilayer physical vapor deposition process, and can form heterogeneous nanorods from a large variety of materials, including metals, semiconductors, insulators, composites, and ceramics. In this project, two different kinds of structures will be demonstrated: metal A/metal B and superconductor/insulator nanorod structures. The growth mechanism of nanorod formation, and how different growth conditions affect the size, shape, and the uniformity of nanorods, will be investigated. The quality of the nanorod array will also be controlled by two dimensional regular template arrays using either colloid monolayer or electron beam lithographic methods. The proposed method, if successful, will open a door for the researchers to access and design different novel multilayered nanostructures by simply changing the evaporation materials, and will catalyze rapid and innovative advances not only in fabricating novel nanoelectronics devices, but also in designing novel functionalized materials. Those novel devices could be used to make faster computers, higher density storage medium, more reliable and higher sensitivity chemical biological sensors, etc. The novel functionalized multilayer materials can be used for targeted drug delivery and tumor therapy, energy conservation coating, etc. These applications will help to restore a strong economy, improve public healthcare, and fight terrorists with better weapons, which are current concerns of every American.