Room temperature self-assembly of mixed nanoparticles into complex material systems and devices

The ability to manufacture nanomaterials with complex and structured composition using otherwise incompatible materials increasingly underpins the next generation of technologies. This is translating into growing efforts integrating a wider range of materials onto key technology platforms1 - in photonics, one such platform is silica, a passive, low loss and robust medium crucial for efficient optical transport2. Active functionalisation, either through added gain or nonlinearity, is mostly possible through the integration of active materials3, 4. The high temperatures used in manufacturing of silica waveguides, unfortunately, make it impossible to presently integrate many organic and inorganic species critical to achieving this extended functionality. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of novel waveguides and devices made up of complex silica based materials using the self-assembly of nanoparticles. In particular, the room temperature fabrication of silica microwires integrated with organic dyes (Rhodamine B) and single photon emitting nanodiamonds is presented.Comment: Key words: nanotechnology, nanoparticles, self-assembly, quantum science, singel photon emitters, telecommunications, sensing, new materials, integration of incompatible materials, silica, glass, breakthrough scienc

Room-temperature fabrication of mono-dispersed liquid crystalline shells with high viscosity and high melting points

We propose a new method to fabricate mono-dispersed liquid crystalline (LC) microcapsules with shells consisting of LC materials showing high viscosity and/or high melting points at room temperature. In this method, it is important to control the state of the shell phase by the addition and removal of agents inducing LC-to-isotropic phase transitions and vice versa, respectively, at the right times.Reproduced from J. Mater. Chem. C , 2017, 5, 1303-1307 with permission from the Royal Society of Chemistry.https://doi.org/10.1039/c6tc05267

Room-temperature fabrication of high-resolution carbon nanotube field-emission cathodes by self-assembly

The room-temperature fabrication process of high-resolution carbon nanotube (CNT) field-emission cathodes by self-assembly was discussed. The well-defined patterns with variable thickness and less than a 10-μm linewidth were readily deposited. The CNTs were found to show long-range in-plane orientation ordering and adhered strongly to the substrates

Room-temperature fabrication of flexible thermoelectric generator using dry-spray deposition system

학위논문 (석사)-- 서울대학교 대학원 : 기계항공공학부, 2016. 2. 안성훈.We present a flexible thermoelectric (TE) generator with titanium dioxide (TiO2), antimony (Sb), and tellurium (Te) powders fabricated by a nanoparticle deposition system (NPDS). NPDS is a novel low-energy consumption dry-spray method that enables the deposition of inorganic materials on substrates at room temperature and under low vacuum. TiO2 nanopowders were dispersed on a TE powder for improved adhesion between TE films and the substrate. Film morphologies were investigated using field-emission scanning electron microscopy, and the phase structure was analyzed by X-ray diffraction. A TE leg, deposited with 3 wt% TiO2 content, had the largest Seebeck coefficient of approximately 160 µV/K. The prototype TE generator consisted of 16 TE legs linked by silver interconnects over an area of 20 × 60 mm2. The prototype produced a voltage of 48.91 mV and a maximum power output of 0.18 µW from a temperature gradient of 20 K. The values are comparable to that of conventional methods. These results suggest that flexible TE generators can be fabricated by energy efficient methods, although internal and contact resistances must be decreased.Chapter 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Fabrication of flexible TE generators 2 1.3 Objectives 3 Chapter 2. Experimental procedure 4 2.1 Nano particle deposition system 4 2.2 Materials 6 2.3 TE generator fabrication process 7 2.4 Characterization 8 Chapter 3. Results and Discussion 9 3.1 Field-emission scanning electron microscopy 9 3.2 X-ray diffraction 11 3.3 Seebeck coefficient and internal resistance 12 3.4 Prototype flexible TE generator 13 3.5 Voltage and power output 14 3.6 Comparison with various fabrication methods 15 Chapter 4. Conclusions 17 Reference 18 Abstract (Korean) 20Maste

Enhanced Self-organized Dewetting of Ultrathin Polymer Films under Water-organic Solutions: Fabrication of Sub-micron Spherical Lens Arrays

Field-induced self-organized patterning in ultrathin (< 100 nm) polymer films produces resolutions of the order of 10 {\mu}m or more because of the high energy penalty for the surface deformations on small scales. We propose here a very simple but versatile method to fabricate sub-micron (~100 nm) ordered and tunable polymeric structures by self-organized room temperature dewetting of ultrathin polystyrene films by minimizing the surface tension limitation. We illustrate this technique by fabricating sub-micron lens arrays of tunable curvature. This is achieved by switching to controlled room temperature dewetting under an optimal mix of water, acetone and methyl-ethyl ketone (MEK). Organic solvents used decrease the glass transition temperature, greatly decrease the interfacial tension, intensify the field and increase the contact angle/aspect ratio of the resulting tunable nano-structures, without a concurrent solubilization of PS owing to water being the majority phase in the outside mixture.Comment: 13 pages and 5 figure

Multistate resistive switching in silver nanoparticle films.

Resistive switching devices have garnered significant consideration for their potential use in nanoelectronics and non-volatile memory applications. Here we investigate the nonlinear current-voltage behavior and resistive switching properties of composite nanoparticle films comprising a large collective of metal-insulator-metal junctions. Silver nanoparticles prepared via the polyol process and coated with an insulating polymer layer of tetraethylene glycol were deposited onto silicon oxide substrates. Activation required a forming step achieved through application of a bias voltage. Once activated, the nanoparticle films exhibited controllable resistive switching between multiple discrete low resistance states that depended on operational parameters including the applied bias voltage, temperature and sweep frequency. The films' resistance switching behavior is shown here to be the result of nanofilament formation due to formative electromigration effects. Because of their tunable and distinct resistance states, scalability and ease of fabrication, nanoparticle films have a potential place in memory technology as resistive random access memory cells

Evanescent-wave coupled right angled buried waveguide: Applications in carbon nanotube mode-locking

In this paper we present a simple but powerful subgraph sampling primitive that is applicable in a variety of computational models including dynamic graph streams (where the input graph is defined by a sequence of edge/hyperedge insertions and deletions) and distributed systems such as MapReduce. In the case of dynamic graph streams, we use this primitive to prove the following results: -- Matching: First, there exists an $\tilde{O}(k^2)$ space algorithm that returns an exact maximum matching on the assumption the cardinality is at most $k$. The best previous algorithm used $\tilde{O}(kn)$ space where $n$ is the number of vertices in the graph and we prove our result is optimal up to logarithmic factors. Our algorithm has $\tilde{O}(1)$ update time. Second, there exists an $\tilde{O}(n^2/\alpha^3)$ space algorithm that returns an $\alpha$-approximation for matchings of arbitrary size. (Assadi et al. (2015) showed that this was optimal and independently and concurrently established the same upper bound.) We generalize both results for weighted matching. Third, there exists an $\tilde{O}(n^{4/5})$ space algorithm that returns a constant approximation in graphs with bounded arboricity. -- Vertex Cover and Hitting Set: There exists an $\tilde{O}(k^d)$ space algorithm that solves the minimum hitting set problem where $d$ is the cardinality of the input sets and $k$ is an upper bound on the size of the minimum hitting set. We prove this is optimal up to logarithmic factors. Our algorithm has $\tilde{O}(1)$ update time. The case $d=2$ corresponds to minimum vertex cover. Finally, we consider a larger family of parameterized problems (including $b$-matching, disjoint paths, vertex coloring among others) for which our subgraph sampling primitive yields fast, small-space dynamic graph stream algorithms. We then show lower bounds for natural problems outside this family

Controlling TcT_c of Iridium Films Using the Proximity Effect

A superconducting Transition-Edge Sensor (TES) with low-$T_c$ is essential in a high resolution calorimetric detection. With a motivation of developing sensitive calorimeters for applications in cryogenic neutrinoless double beta decay searches, we have been investigating methods to reduce the $T_c$ of an Ir film down to 20 mK. Utilizing the proximity effect between a superconductor and a normal metal, we found two room temperature fabrication recipes of making Ir-based low-$T_c$ films. In the first approach, an Ir film sandwiched between two Au films, a Au/Ir/Au trilayer, has a tunable $T_c$ in the range of 20-100 mK depending on the relative thicknesses. In the second approach, a paramagnetic Pt thin film is used to create Ir/Pt bilayer with a tunable $T_c$ in the same range. We present detailed study of fabrication and characterization of Ir-based low-$T_c$ films, and compare the experimental results to theoretical models. We show that Ir-based films with predictable and reproducible critical temperature can be consistently fabricated for use in large scale detector applications.Comment: 5 figures, accepted in the Journal of Applied Physic

Design, fabrication and characterization of a distributed Bragg reflector for reducing the étendue of a wavelength converting system

In this work, the design, fabrication and characterization are reported for a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) filter with a specific wavelength and angular dependency, which aims to improve the light collection from a wavelength-converter-based light source into a smaller angle than the full angle Lambertian emission. The desired design is obtained by optimizing the transmission characteristics of a multi-layer structure. Titania (TiO2) and silica (SiO2) are used as high and low refractive index materials, respectively. The deposition is made by electron beam evaporation without substrate heating, followed by a post-annealing procedure. The optical properties of the evaporated layers are analyzed by ellipsometer and spectrometer measurements. The angular and wavelength dependency of the fabricated DBR is in good agreement with simulations for the designed structure. (C) 2020 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreemen