KSEF R&D Excellence: A Novel Method for Fabrication and Characterization of Nano-Scale Heterojunctions

The promise of nanoscale science and technology is becoming more and more widespread (materials and manufacturing, computer technology, medicine and health, aeronautics and space exploration, environment and energy, biotechnology and energy, national security and future U.S. competitiveness) and a revolution is in the making To fully exploit this promise, development of novel techniques for fabricating large area, selfordered films (as against lithographic techniques) is indispensable. Furthermore, to make useful devices, one must go beyond films and actually form junctions and interfaces and understand their optical and electrical properties. The main goal of this proposal is to develop a new method for fabricating and characterizing such junctions. Specific objectives of this work are to, 1. Develop a new method for forming large area, self-ordered nanoscale semiconductor-metal junctions (by anodization of aluminum and subsequent electrodeposition of materials). 2. Perform materials and electro-optical characterization of the nanoscale semiconductor-metal junctions using techniques like optical absorption (with applied field), capacitance, conductivity (future magnetic storage) and electron microscopy (TEM, SEM, AFM) techniques. Explore the application of these structures to light switching. Completion of this project would lead to, 1. Development of a novel technique for large area ordered arrays of nanoscale elements. Present day top-down and bottom-up techniques do not yield large areas of ordered arrays. 2. Development of techniques for junction characterization at nano-scale lateral dimensions 3.Training of future talent for research in nanotechnology. It is expected that two post-doctoral students and two graduate students will contribute to this project.