CRYSTALLOGRAPHY AND FUNCTIONAL EVOLUTION OF ATOMICALLY THIN CONFINED NANOWIRES

这个已建立的职业奖学金提案涉及在单壁碳纳米管内形成的一到四个原子厚的1D“极限纳米线”的空间和时间分辨率晶体学，结构改进和功能演变-原子光滑的模板，热稳定性高达1130摄氏度。这是可扩展制造的实际极限，是材料科学的“最终前沿”，也是相对于石墨烯或金属硫化物衍生的无机类似物等二维结构的下一个和最终的最低维度。它将解决原子调节晶体生长的四个主要方面，被认为是最关键的发展方面：三维晶体学与原子对原子的灵敏度；四维晶体学，解决纳米受限相变材料的特殊情况，在非易失性存储器中具有潜在的用途；基于从上述结构研究中获得的增强信息进行结构细化；以及薄膜器件的开发，这些器件可以对齐或不对齐，既用于基本特性评估（包括新物理的几个方面），也用于“原理证明”器件的创建，用于薄膜器件的潜在开发，包括太阳能电池、化学传感器、燃料电池、电池和催化剂，所有这些都可能带来经济效益。该项目预计将在华威的技术开发中发挥重要作用，并通过设在牛津、维也纳、华沙、保罗和北京的项目合作伙伴网络发挥重要作用。所检查材料的“终极尺度”物理性质将测试并帮助改进目前可用的最敏感的表征方法，特别是高性能电子显微镜，相关的光谱方法，原位低温成像，原位电阻/电导率测量，高性能扫描探针显微镜和薄膜器件制造。该项目预计将对目前快速发展的高性能电子显微镜在时间分辨4D研究领域产生非常重大的影响，我将利用牛津/钻石和北京的超快成像和衍射能力，并利用直接电子检测的最新发展进行快速和更定量的成像研究。在这方面，特殊类别的nC-PCMs将提供一个最终的测试，从表面上看是最小尺度（即1纳米）的相变材料，因此这些实验将在最小尺度上检验可逆和不可逆的相形成。我开发的新电子衍射协议还将允许我们“放大”模板SWNTs束和薄膜中的相变，从而在晶体/玻璃转变的同时原位测量电阻和电导率变化，并评估其可逆性。任何可利用的物理性质都将在简单的测热装置中进行评估，该装置既可用于进一步的物理测试，也可作为可利用的“原理证明”装置。这些研究将根据项目需要利用华威大学现有的许多最先进的设施，还将通过设在牛津、维也纳、华沙、保罗和北京的项目合作伙伴网络提供更多的专业知识和信息，所有这些合作伙伴都将为技术开发、互惠特性以及发展/扩展自己的活动做出贡献并从中受益，这将是华威大学领导的一个独特的世界领先企业。PI将领导这些来自英国的活动，然后通过追求这种互补但“超越石墨烯”的研究，有可能将1D纳米结构添加到其在2D纳米材料中的主导地位。

This Established Career Fellowship proposal concerns the spatial and time resolved crystallography, structural refinement and functional evolution of one to four atom thick 1D 'Extreme Nanowires' formed inside single walled carbon nanotubes - atomically smooth templates that are thermally robust up to 1130 degrees Centigrade. This is at the practical limit of scalable fabrication, a 'Final Frontier' of materials science and the next and ultimate lowest dimension relative to two-dimensional structures such as graphene or inorganic analogues derived from metal sulphides and similar. It will address the four major aspects of atomically regulated crystal growth deemed to be the most critical in terms of their development: three-dimensional crystallography with atom-by-atom sensitivity; four-dimensional crystallography, addressing the special case of nano-Confined Phase Change Materials, which have potential utility in Non-Volatile Memory; structural refinement based on enhanced information obtained from the forgoing structural studies; and the development of thin film devices, which may be either aligned or misaligned, both for fundamental properties evaluation - including several aspects of Novel Physics - but also for 'Proof of Principle' device creation for potential exploitation in thin film devices including solar cells, chemical sensors, fuel cells, batteries and catalysts, all of which may bring economic benefits.This project is expected to play a significant role in techniques development both in Warwick and through the Project Partner network based in Oxford, Vienna, Warsaw, Pau and Beijing. The 'Ultimate Scale' physical nature of the materials under examination will both test and help improve the most sensitive characterisation methodologies currently available, especially high performance electron microscopy, associated spectroscopic methods, in situ low-temperature imaging, in situ resistance/conductivity measurements, high performance scanning probe microscopies and thin film device fabrication. This project is expected to have in particular a very significant impact on the current rapidly developing field in high-performance electron microscopy in time-resolved 4D studies in which I will exploit ultrafast imaging and diffraction capabilities available in both Oxford/Diamond and Beijing, taking advantage also of the latest developments in Direct Electron Detection in rapid and more quantitative imaging studies. In this regard, the special category of nC-PCMs will provide an ultimate test being literally the smallest scale (i.e. 1 nm) Phase Change Materials ever observed and these experiments will therefore examine reversible and irreversible phase formation at the smallest scale ever likely to be attempted. The new electron diffraction protocol that I have developed will also allow us to 'scale up' phase transformation in bundles and thin films of the template SWNTs enabling resistance and conductivity changes to be measured in situ at the same time as crystalline/glass transformations and to assess their reversibility. Any exploitable physical properties will then be assessed in simple bolometric-type devices that will be used both in further physical testing but also as exploitable 'Proof of Principle' devices.These studies will make use of the many state-of-the-art facilities available at the University of Warwick as the project requires but also more dedicated expertise and information available through a Project Partner network based in the Oxford, Vienna, Warsaw, Pau and Beijing all of whom contribute to and benefit from techniques development, reciprocal characterisation and from developing/expanding their own activities in what will be a unique World-leading enterprise lead from Warwick. The PI will lead these activities from the UK which can then potentially add 1D nanostructures to its dominance in 2D Nanomaterials by pursuing this complementary but 'Beyond Graphene' research.