SGER: Fullerene Thin Film for Chipscale Micro and Nanosytems

目的：这项探索性工作将探索将C60富勒烯薄膜掺入微纳米系统中的用途。智能优点：C60的电气绝缘特性，再加上其高内部机械损耗和低声阻抗，将使耦合和隔离需要以大比例进行空间调制的耦合谐振器阵列成为可能，而不需要使用谐振器之间的自由空间。此外，C60具有超低的表面能和摩擦力，可用于防粘，以及用于在芯片上制造碳纳米管的前驱体。在纳米尺度上制造的富勒烯结构，其中分子的数量(和尺寸)可以变化，可能提供一组新的非线性和可控制的材料性质，有助于在微/纳米机电系统中实现存储、模拟信号处理和射频信号调制技术。更广泛的影响：这项关于富勒烯作为微系统中的结构材料的努力将产生关于富勒烯薄膜材料特性和加工技术的新知识。除了希望使用开发的方法来研究可以机械和电气连接到独立富勒烯结构的其他材料的材料属性的科学家外，这种知识还将在设备领域有广泛的应用。富勒烯作为一种工程材料的知识将进一步促进将与微米和纳米尺度的范德华力有关的教育材料引入工程和科学课程。

Objective:This exploratory effort will investigate the use of incorporating C60 fullerene thin films within micro and nano systems. Intellectual Merit: The C60 electrical insulating property, combined with its high internal mechanical loss and low-acoustic impedance, would enable coupled resonator arrays where coupling and isolation needs to be spatially modulated with large ratios, without using free-space between resonators. Additionally, C60 has ultralow surface energy and friction, which can be utilized for stiction prevention, and precursors for on-chip carbon nanotube fabrication. Fullerene structures made at the nanoscale, where the number (and size) of molecules can vary, might provide a new set of nonlinear and controllable material properties useful for realizing memory, analog signal processing, and RF signal modulation techniques within micro and nano electromechanical systems. Broader Impact: This effort on fullerenes as a structural material in microsystems will yield new knowledge on material properties and processing technologies of fullerene thin films. This knowledge will have broad application in the device community in addition to scientists who wish to use the methods developed to study material properties of other materials that can be mechanically and electrically linked to free-standing fullerene structures. The knowledge of fullerenes as an engineering material will further catalyze the introduction of educational material related to van der Waals-forces at the micro and nano scale into the engineering and science curriculum.