Franck Natali, Ph.D.  - Nano Clusters Devices Ltd, New Zealand

Commercial Production of Cluster-based Electronic Devices

Atomic clusters have, for many years, been extensively studied because of the wide range of fascinating new physics and chemistry that is observed in such nanoscale systems. Some effort has previously been devoted to the production of new materials based on clusters, but the possibility that clusters could be used as nanoscale building blocks for devices has met with relatively little recognition. This is principally due to the lack of suitable processes for forming useful device structures. Nevertheless this approach is very promising due to the wide range of film parameters that can be controlled such as the cluster material, the size of cluster and the overall system size. We can expect new nanoelectronic devices whose properties are governed by the unusual properties of the clusters.

We report the achievement of contacted electronic devices, which are self-assembled from atomic clusters. We combine the best features of the bottom-up and top-down approaches while circumventing their inherent problems. We have now demonstrated several different methods suitable for the formation of contacted cluster chains/nanowires, including formation by percolation, templating, and stencilling, as well as through novel no-lift-off lithographyTM techniques. We have thus produced electrically conducting nanowires on lithographically prepared templates using silicon (Si), bismuth (Bi), antimony (Sb), copper (Cu), silver (Ag) and palladium (Pd) atomic clusters which are, respectively, very promising materials for electronic devices such as field effect or single electron transistors, interconnects, and gas sensor applications (especially hydrogen sensing). These nanowires are being commercialized through a start-up company in collaboration with US-based partners. The application examples presented here will be hydrogen sensors based on Pd clusters and copper cluster filled trenches which are used as interconnects.

Franck Natali received his B.Sc. (Hons.) degree from University of Bordeaux, France, and his PhD degree in physics from the National Research Centre for Semiconductor Epitaxial Growth, CRHEA-CNRS, Valbonne, France in 2003. His doctoral research dealt with the growth of (Al,Ga)N/GaN heterostructures by molecular beam epitaxy on silicon(111).

From 2004 to 2005 he was with the Laboratory of Photonic and Nanostructures, LPN-CNRS, Marcoussis, France, working on the study by molecular beam epitaxy and scanning tunneling microscopy of the atomic surface organisation of III-Arsenic semiconductors. He is now a postdoctoral researcher with the MacDiarmid Institute and the Nanostructure Engineering Science and Technology (NEST) Group, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, where his research interests include fabrication and transport characterization of cluster-assembled nano-electronic devices. He is working in close collaboration with Nano Cluster Devices Ltd which has developed world leading technology for self-assembly of nanowires between electrical contacts, with applications in areas as diverse as integrated circuits, chemical sensors and read heads for hard drives.

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