Innovative Nanowire DEvicE Design

Project Information

INDEED

Grant agreement ID: 722176

DOI

10.3030/722176

Project closed

EC signature date 22 August 2016

Start date 1 February 2017

End date 31 July 2021

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 4 000 457,52

EU contribution

€ 4 000 457,52

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - INDEED (Innovative Nanowire DEvicE Design)

Reporting period: 2019-02-01 to 2021-07-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The INDEED ITN’s key objective is to develop the next-generation of semiconductor nanowire (NW) based electronic and optical devices and to pave the way to future industrial applications. NWs are nanoscale materials produced in laboratories and exhibit unique properties that make them ideal building blocks to develop next-generation electronic devices: intelligent sensors, solar cells, transistors, quantum light sources and quantum computers. Precise control of the NW growth is supported by underpinning theory and processing models, the development of new characterisation techniques, scalable processes and device concepts. INDEED brings together leading scientific experts from 12 top academic institutions in Europe and 13 industry partners with an excellent track record of converting cutting-edge scientific ideas into market products, to train 15 future research leaders (ESRs). NWs are key enablers future societal needs such as big data & artificial intelligence. Fig.1 depicts a technology developed by INDEED to produce NW-based superconducting junctions, the building blocks for future quantum computers able to perform thousands of times better than their existing counterparts. Our main objectives are: (i) Training: Deliver the best scientific research and transferable skills to the ESRs so that they publish high impact journal papers and communicate our discoveries to the public (Fig.2); (ii) Underpinning technology: Understand and control the NWs properties for scalable device fabrication and monolithic integration; (iii) Emerging device concepts: Develop new device concepts based on NWs for future and emerging technologies (Fig.3); (iv) Scaling up and technology demonstrators: Develop NW-based technology demonstrators to address volume processing; (v) Innovative design approaches: Develop cross-cutting design methodologies for the optimisation of nanoscale device fabrication concepts.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Underpinning technology- WP3: Activities ranged from the fabrication of NWs to the study of their electronic and optical properties. For example, new NW growth processes were developed to control structural, electronic, and optical properties. To control these, experimental studies of epitaxial growth were coupled with new growth theory and models. This understanding permits the fine-tuning of NW properties for particular device functions. Growth recipes for suppressing unwanted effects and sharpening NW junction structures and ensemble behaviour were formulated to facilitate the interaction between matter and light.

Emerging device concepts- WP4: focused on emerging NW based devices, concepts, and applications, where our primary goal was to take current understanding of NW characteristics to design, develop, test new ideas and future devices. Highlights include processes to fabricate controlled, kinked NWs that form superconducting junctions (a fundamental quantum computer building block). We showed that NWs can be configured to produce strong encryption devices necessary for computer security. We also created models and demonstrated methods for controlling NW size distributions, morphology and crystal phase. Semi-automated robotic hardware was developed to manipulate and characterise nanoscale devices, e.g. systematic post-fabrication testing of NW structures.

Scaling up and technology demonstrators- WP5: Size uniformity in self-assisted MBE grown GaAs NWs on silicon can be drastically improved by supersaturation; a key milestone for combining ordered NW arrays and related devices on a chip reproducibly. Deposition techniques have been combined to control ZnO NW growth direction, geometry, and crystal phase purity on large area substrates. This led to highly efficient ZnO-NW/MOF (metalorganic framework) photoanodes for hydrogen production. DNA-based biopolymers were utilised for NW batch production where coordination polymers enhance electrical. By optimising growth and fabrication parameters, two colour simultaneous emission (blue/green and blue/red) NW LEDs were demonstrated on transparent flexible substrates. Using a similar optimisation approach, we demonstrated single-photon sources based on AlGaAs NWs and GaAs quantum dots.

Innovative design approaches- WP6: consisted of applying Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ) to Nanotechnology. A method was developed to simplify conceptual design and conduct fast searches in thousands of scientific articles and patents. TRIZ methodology was taught to the ESRs and young physicists outside the network. A pilot eCourse on Creativity in Physics, publicly available online http://creativity-course.online was developed.

The entire transferable and scientific skills training programme within the grant agreement was fully implemented -WP2. The host universities and industrial partners provided the day-to-day local training. Nine major network wide training events (e.g. conferences and workshops) were held covering technical content, research skills, personal effectiveness and communication.

Dissemination & Communication- WP2: www.indeednetwork.com provides information on publications, conferences, events, and outreach. ESRs were active via YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp and LinkedIn and produced 38 journal papers and 79 conference papers. They contributed to 5 major outreach events to communicate our research to the public: Celebrate Science Festival- Durham; Notte di ricercatore- Rome and Night of Culture- Lund attracted more than 5k visitors each, EPFL open day (40k visitors) and a Digital Surf promotional video.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

We have established a distributed, multicultural laboratory, with ESRs regularly moving between partner organisations. The INDEED cohort of PhD awarded future leaders has engaged with the general public across Europe through outreach. While the primary beneficiaries of the research are likely to be technology SMEs, our findings have been integrated in undergraduate and MSc teaching curricula in many partner institutions. Our ESRs advanced the state of the art by demonstrating NW based photovoltaics, solid-state lighting (e.g. two colour flexible LEDs), secure computer encryption devices, single-photon laser sources (Innolume), and photoanodes for hydrogen production. Gold-free templated growth of III–V nanowires by MBE enabled patternable and highly regular branched nanowire arrays on a far greater scale than existing technology. We gained control of the optical properties by using strain to tune light emission and the demonstration kinked NW-based superconducting junctions are a fundamental step towards the design of quantum computers. These breakthroughs are reported in 38 journal articles with more in preparation. IMINA Technologies developed a robotic NW control solution (fig.3) is utilised by their R&D team to facilitate high throughput NW device fabrication. Horiba and CNRS-IEMN jointly developed an optical module for advanced spectroscopy in ultrahigh vacuum. This is commercially available and enabled an all-in-one fibre coupled solution for Raman and luminescence spectroscopy in a scanning electron microscope. This is now used by worldwide customers and 3 new engineers were hired to their increased R&D activity. As a result of INDEED, PragmatIC has introduced TRIZ for the design of nanoscale transistors. The TRIZ methodology is available as an open public access resource and has gained more than 1k original content views: www.cephei.eu/en/online-courses/1195008/artificial-inventiveness/.

INDEED ESRs contributing to the Durham (UK) Celebrate Science Festival, October 2018.

Kinked nanowires exhibiting superconducting junctions for future quantum computers

Imina’s Mini robots to manipulate nanoscale objects and devices and to measure their electronic prop