14 DAY TRIAL // Besides the probing of carbon nanotubes, the new electron microscope at the Birck Nanotechnology Center will be used by Eric Stach, an associate professor of materials engineering, to study structures of silicon and other semiconductor materials at very small scales.
"In addition to studying nanometer-scale structures made of unconventional materials, such as carbon, we are also trying to learn how to make smaller devices and structures from conventional silicon," Stach said.
"On this size scale, a material's properties change. For example, if you take a piece of gold and make it very small, it's not really quite gold anymore because the electronic structure changes and it has different properties. These nanomaterials transmit electricity and light differently than when they are in bulk form, and these differing properties could be harnessed to create superior computers and electronics, but only if we learn precisely how they form at the atomic level and how to fabricate them in a uniform way."
The researchers at Birck are using the new instrument for work funded by the National Science Foundation to study the growth of semiconductor materials, such as silicon, germanium and gallium arsenide.
"It's the same idea as studying the growth process of carbon nanotubes," Stach said. "We need to know which atoms are going where. What is the effect of temperature, pressure, source gas and catalysts in creating uniform structures that are the same every time?"
Researchers at the interdisciplinary center plan to use the instrument for a variety of other research, including studies to learn more about how metals rust and oxidize at the atomic level, information that has potentially major economic value for industry, he said.
"Now that the microscope is up and running, we expect greater interest for more joint research projects through Birck and Discovery Park with other industrial and corporate partners," Stach said. "This microscope is going to be very busy."