EAGER: SUPER: Search for high-temperature superconductivity in heterostructured two-dimensional organic materials

摘要：该项目的目标是设计和制造能够在室温和环境压力下具有超导性的单层和多层有机材料。显然，这一发现将是所有技术的一场革命，尤其是在微电子和能量传输和产生方面。但是，即使这个宏伟的目标没有实现，具有可编程功能的多层有机材料的生长协议的发展也使其在半导体和可再生能源工业、光学和激光方面的应用成为可能。在教育方面，该项目为PI的小组带来了一个与有机化学相关的全新研究领域。通过小组会议和直接参与研究，研究生和本科生拓宽了他们在有机化学和量子化学领域的知识和专业知识，这些领域通常不是物理教育的一部分。该项目支持培养有机化学、半导体加工和运输、磁性和光学测量方面的本科生。它还为化学系的学生在夏季提供了本科生研究的机会，从而使他们接触到物理实验室的许多方面。这种参与使学生为未来在工业和学术环境中的多学科协作工作做好准备。技术摘要：研究小组利用最先进的有机分子束外延（OMLE）方法制备了几种有望在高温下具有超导性能的有机异质结构材料。OMLE允许构建独特的分子层内和层间排列，这是标准方法无法实现的。它们包括自组装的单层和多层，由芳香族分子（如蒎烯、蒽、NTCDI和锚定富勒烯）在场效应晶体管结构中制成，可以通过调节栅极电位注入载流子。混合具有供体和受体性质的分子来模拟电荷转移有机超导体中的分子排列。在PI的实验室中，通过在1.5-300 K范围内的输运和磁性测量来表征材料的物理特性。利用原位椭偏光谱技术监测了材料的生长过程。利用犹他大学的共享设备：x射线光电子能谱、光吸收和拉曼光谱，研究了电荷态、电子能带形成、电荷转移和光学性质。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Nontechnical Abstract:The project sets the goal to design and fabricate single- and multi-layer organic materials which can host superconductivity, potentially at room temperature and ambient pressure. Obviously, this discovery would be a revolution across all technologies but in particular in microelectronics and energy transfer and generation. But even if this grand goal is not achieved, the development of the protocols for growth of multilayered organic materials with programmed functionality enables applications in semiconductor and renewable energy industries, optics and lasing. On the educational side, the project brings into the PI’s group an entirely new area of research linked to organic chemistry. Through group meetings and direct participation in the research, graduate and undergraduate students broaden their knowledge and expertise in organic and quantum chemistry, fields that are typically not part of physics education. The project supports training of undergraduate students in organic chemistry, semiconductor processing and transport, magnetic and optical measurements. It also creates opportunities for undergraduate research during summer, to be offered to the students from Department of Chemistry, thus exposing them to many aspects of physics lab. This engagement makes students ready for future collaborative multi-disciplinary work in industrial and academic environment.Technical Abstract: The research team uses the state-of-the-art method of organic molecular beam epitaxy (OMLE) to fabricate several series of organic heterostructured materials anticipated to have superconducting properties at high temperatures. OMLE allows to construct unique molecular intra-layer and inter-layer arrangements inaccessible by standard methods. They include self-assembled monolayers and multilayers made from aromatic molecules such as picene, chrysene, NTCDI, and anchored fullerenes in the configuration of field-effect transistor, which allows to inject carriers by adjusting the gate potential. Molecules with donor and acceptor properties are mixed to imitate molecular arrangements in charge-transfer organic superconductors. The physical properties of materials are characterized by transport and magnetic measurements in the range 1.5-300 K in the PI’s lab. The growth of the materials is monitored by in-situ spectroscopic ellipsometry. The charge states, electronic band formation, charge-transfer and optical properties are studied using University of Utah shared facilities: x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, optical absorption, and Raman spectroscopies.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.