DNA & PROTEIN ANALYSIS GRAPHENE NANOPARTICLE SYNTHESIS FLUORESCENCE NANOFABRICATION NANOELECTRONICS FORCE MICROSCOPY EQUIPMENT
We carry out low-noise charge transport in nanoscale structures and electronic devices
(transistors, memory, etc). We have variable temperature cryostats (0.3-800K) dedicated to this research.
As a substrate we usually use silicon nitride membrane devices which allow the preparation
of nanoscale devices ("nanogaps") directly with Electron Beam Lithography, as well as imaging with
transmission electron microscopy.
Preparation of nanogaps and measurement of few nanocrystals
High-quality nanometer-size electrode gaps ("nanogaps") compatible with atomic resolution
imaging can be made using electron beam lithography on silicon nitride membranes. We showed that this is possible
because the electron backscattering from thin membrane substrates is sufficiently reduced to allow for nm-resolution
e-beam fabrication.
Fabrication of nanogaps is direct and can be achieved by anyone with access to a standard
electron-beam lithography system, without the need for break-junction techniques on silicon nitride membrane
substrates.
We have then measured transport from five PbSe nanocrystals capped with oleic acid ligands
within a small gap. In the figure below you can see the single nanocrystals (open circles) localized inside a 10 nm
gap. The graph on the left (black curve) displays the current-voltage trace corresponding to these nanocrystals
measured at temperature of 5 K. The electrical signal measured before nanocrystals were deposited corresponding to
an empty gap is also shown (red curve).
For more details on the preparation of nanogaps and measurements of PbSe nanocrystals:
Michael D. Fischbein and Marija Drndic
"Nanogaps by direct lithography for high-resolution imaging and
electronic characterization of nanostructures"
Applied Physics Letters 88 (6), 063116, 2006.
cond-mat/0512128
CdSe nanocrystal memory
For more details on CdSe quantum-dot memory:
Michael D. Fischbein and Marija Drndic
"CdSe nanocrystal quantum-dot memory"
Applied Physics Letters 86 (19), 193106, 2005.
2008, Marija Drndic