Descripción del proyecto
Nueva tecnología para la formación de imágenes del transporte electrónico a nanoescala
El desarrollo de la electrónica moderna y de dispositivos de comunicación depende de la variedad de efectos físicos producidos por el transporte electrónico en nanoestructuras y películas finas. No obstante, el proceso estándar para investigar el transporte electrónico no proporciona información sobre la actual distribución a nanoescala en dichas estructuras. El proyecto IMAGINE, financiado con fondos europeos, aprovechará la microscopía magnética sensible para alcanzar la distribución actual en nanoestructuras con una resolución espacial de ~15 nm. El método se basa en la reciente técnica de la magnetometría con exploración con diamante, que aprovecha la metrología cuántica para alcanzar una sensibilidad muy elevada y que recientemente ha permitido un mayor análisis pasivo de las superficies magnéticas. El proyecto pretende establecer una tecnología nueva y robusta para la formación de imágenes no invasiva del transporte electrónico en nanoestructuras.
Objetivo
Electronic transport in nanostructures and thin films shows a rich variety of physical effects that have been fundamental to the development of modern electronics and communication devices. The standard method for investigating electronic transport – resistance measurements – does not provide any information on the nanoscale current distribution in such structures. The lack of spatial information is unfortunate, because the current distribution plays a key role in many intriguing physical phenomena. Having a technique at hand that could simply look at nanoscale current flow would be immensely valuable.
In this project we propose to exploit sensitive magnetic microscopy to directly access the current distribution in nanostructures with ~15nm spatial resolution. Our approach is based on the recent technique of scanning diamond magnetometry (SDM), a scanned-probe method that utilizes a single spin in a diamond tip as a high-resolution sensor of magnetic field. Conceived in 2008 by the PI, SDM exploits quantum metrology to achieve very high sensitivities, and has recently enabled a breakthrough in the passive analysis of magnetic surfaces. Our proposal has three objectives: (i) Lay the instrumental and conceptual groundwork required for imaging tiny (<10nA) current variations in two-dimensional conductors. (ii) Demonstrate imaging of a variety of mesoscopic transport features on a well-established model system: Mono- and bilayer graphene. (iii) Explore the potential of our technique for probing electronic properties beyond transport, like phase transitions and photoexcitation.
Together, our experiments are designed to establish a powerful new technology for imaging current distributions non-invasively and with nanometer spatial resolution. This capability will provide the unique opportunity for directly looking at electronic transport in nanostructures, with a potentially transformative impact on condensed matter physics, materials science and electrical engineering.
Ámbito científico
- natural sciencesphysical sciencescondensed matter physics
- engineering and technologynanotechnologynano-materialstwo-dimensional nanostructuresgraphene
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticsmicroscopy
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcoating and films
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectrical engineering
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantInstitución de acogida
8092 Zuerich
Suiza