Uniting Lithographic Patterning and Topochemical Reaction for Processing of Functional Oxides for Electronic Applications

这笔赠款支持研究开发和了解一种新的纳米制造工艺，以制造新型图案材料，从而在先进制造中产生根本性创新，并提高国家的技术能力。图案化材料在电子、通信、数据存储和传感等众多社会关键应用中是必不可少的组件。然而，当前处理这些结构的方法导致模式是静态的，并且通常在功能上受到限制。该奖项支持基础研究，以提供实现新型图案化材料所需的知识，这些图案化材料具有当前可用的加工方法无法获得的特性。这一新的制造策略将用于构图材料的工业相关和可扩展的工艺与低温化学反应相结合，以创建具有可调整特性的氧化物结构，这些结构可以根据外部刺激进行重新配置。这些结构的动态特性可以作为新一代自适应设备的平台。因此，该项目带来的新的制造见解和方法将使美国经济和社会受益。该项目为学生提供工业界寻求的各种实验技能的研究培训，并让当地高中生参与促进工程领域的研究。拓扑化学反应是一种固态化学反应，它改变了成分，但保留了材料结构的中心特征。当在光刻限定的区域进行时，这些反应能够产生基于氧化物的横向图案，具有受控的几何形状、不同的化学成分和现有加工路线所不具备的新功能。然而，充分利用这一制造战略的技术潜力的能力取决于对工艺的许多方面发展基本的科学理解。本研究解决了这些知识空白，以更好地了解相关机制和动力学限制。研究小组通过系统地改变不同图案化金属氧化物上的反应，确定了材料成分、晶体结构和工艺参数之间的关系。该团队确定了动力学因素，这些因素设定了纳米级图案中特征尺寸的最终限制，并使非二元结构的形成成为可能，并阐明了结构在外加电场和通过顺序反应步骤下的稳定性和可重构性。通过这样做，这项研究能够制造包括功能氧化物和氟氧化物ABO3/ABO2F在内的横向结构，例如，促进可重构或瞬时电子、衍射光栅和传感器等应用的SrFeO_3/SrFeO_2F图案。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This grant supports research into developing and understanding a new nanomanufacturing process to fabricate novel patterned materials, thereby generating fundamental innovations in advanced manufacturing and advancing the nation’s technological capabilities. Patterned materials are essential components in numerous societally-critical applications including electronics, communications, data storage, and sensing. However, current approaches to processing these structures result in patterns that are static and often limited in their functionality. This award supports fundamental research to provide the knowledge needed to realize new classes of patterned materials with properties that cannot be accessed through currently available processing approaches. This new manufacturing strategy combines industrially-relevant and scalable processes used to pattern materials with low-temperature chemical reactions to create oxide-based structures with tunable properties that can be reconfigured in response to external stimuli. The dynamic nature of these structures could serve as a platform for a new generation of adaptive devices. Therefore, the new manufacturing insights and approaches resulting from this project benefit the U.S. economy and society. The project provides research training to students on a variety of experimental skills sought by industry and engages local high school students in promoting engineering fields.Topochemical transformations are solid-state chemical reactions that alter composition but retain central features of the material structure. When carried out on lithographically-defined areas, these reactions enable the creation of oxide-based lateral patterns with controlled geometries, diverse chemistries, and new functionality not afforded by existing processing routes. However, the ability to harness the full technological potential of this manufacturing strategy rests on developing a fundamental scientific understanding of numerous aspects of the process. This research addresses these knowledge gaps to better understand the relevant mechanisms and kinetic limitations. The research team identifies the relationships between material composition, crystal structure and processing parameters by systematically varying the reactions on different patterned metal oxides. The team establishes the kinetic factors that set the ultimate limit on feature sizes in nanoscale patterns and enable the formation of non-binary structures and elucidate the stability and reconfigurability of the structures under applied electric fields and through sequential reaction steps. In doing so, the research enables manufacturing of lateral structures including functional oxide and oxyfluoride ABO3/ABO2F, e.g., SrFeO3/SrFeO2F patterns that facilitate applications such as reconfigurable or transient electronics, diffraction gratings, and sensors.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.