Planar Atomic and Molecular Scale devices
(PAMS)
Start date: Oct 1, 2013,
End date: Sep 30, 2017
PROJECT
FINISHED
The PAMS project will explore all scientific and technological aspects of the fabrication of planar atomic and sub-molecular scale electronic devices on surfaces of Si:H, Ge:H, AlN, CaCO3 (calcite) and CaF2 with atomic scale precision and reproducibility. The sub-nanoscale devices will be made by combining ultra-precise Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy (STM) and non-contact-Atomic Force Microscopy (NC-AFM) atomic and molecular manipulation, including hydrogen extraction from passivated surfaces, controlled local doping and on-surface chemical synthesis of molecular devices and wires by coupling of precursors.PAMS will develop new solutions to reliably address sub-nanometer scale devices from the human scale by developing a new generation of low-temperature interconnection and manipulation machines comprising four STM/NC-AFM heads with sub-Å precision, allowing for contacting nanopads connected to dangling bond nanowires, doped silicon nanowires or molecular nanowires. Understanding and optimization of the electronic structures of these nanowires and of the contacts between the various components of the planar device will be one of the central objectives. The atomic and molecular devices will include dangling bond circuitries, functionalized by coupling with organic molecules, and controlled by remote alteration of molecular states by local band bending; alternatively multi-branch polyaromatic logical gates will be synthesized and addressed by up to four nanowires.PAMS will address the novel theoretical challenges posed by these planar devices. Accordingly, new methodological tools will be developed, allowing for a multiscale description (using from first-principles to empirical force-fields) of the structural, electronic and transport properties of such atomic and molecular devices, as well as their fabrication and characterization. These new theoretical tools will ultimately permit us to optimize the design and synthesis of atomic and molecular gates.
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