Objective
This interdisciplinary project aims at manufacturing and developing ferroelectric nanostructures synthesized from nonlinear dielectric and ferroelectric materials in nanoporous membranes and at creating the essential physical principles of their functioning for specific applications (memory, electrical and photonic). Utilizing size dependent phase transitions, quantum confinement effects, enhancement of optical nonlinearity, tuning the absorption band of the structure by dc-electric field, new types of nanoelectronic devices will be proposed: ordered arrays of nanometer size nonlinear capacitors, ordered arrays of nanometer size memory units, dc-field tunable photonic crystal switches, ferroelectric field-effect transistor (FeFET), new effective nonlinear-optical materials, ferroelectric membrane-based stress sensors.
To this aim of the Project
1) new techniques of fabrication of ordered nanomembranes of dielectric and semiconductor materials will be developed
; 2) new techniques of introduction of a guest material into a host followed by a proper treatment to provide a desired crystallographic structure will be proposed;
3) principles of complementary characterization on ferroelectric nanostructures on microscopic and macroscopic levels will be proposed;
4) theoretical description and modelling of observed effects in 2D nanostructures will be developed.
A particular strength of the proposed project is a strong multistep feedback between fabrication and structural, electrical, optical and electro-optical characterization of the obtained structures followed by analysis of possible applications. Special attention will be paid to finding the nm-scale limits of each fabrication technique in producing ferroelectric nanotubes and to looking for new effects results from nm-size and ordering of ferroelectric 2D nanostructures.
As a host, semiconductor (Si, GaP, GaN) and alumina membranes will be used produced by electrochemical anodization and selective etching seeded by ion implantation. The process of self-organization and ordering of pores in these materials will be studied. Two types of nanoporous membranes will be studied and used for template synthesis of FE nanostructures: with low aspect ratio, directed on electronic applications, and with high aspect ratio, directed on photonic applications.
The main representatives of guest materials are perovskite oxides, KDP- and TGS-families, polymer ferroelectrics. For introduction of a material into a template, two techniques will be used:
1) a direct deposition of a material into pores of a membrane, immersed into melt, solution or sol (with the use of surfactants) and;
2) rf sputtering. To provide the necessary crystallographic structure, in the former case either annealing or cooling will be performed.
By dissolution of a host, ordered arrays of bare ferroelectric nanotubes will be obtained. For macroscopic structural characterization TEM and XRD will be used, for microscopic characterization AFM and EFM will be applied to a single wire. These measurements will be accompanied by dielectric and optical measurements both on macroscopic and microscopic levels, including reflectivity measurements, Raman and luminescence spectroscopy and second harmonic generation.
This Project arises as a continuation of a well-established collaboration of several of the partners. The results of the proposed investigations shall give scientific benefit for all countries involved in the Project as well as new potentials for the electronic industries of these countries. The main advantages of combining the teams involved in this project are their complementarity and connection with industry: Phillips and Symetrix for INTAS partners and two technological centres (Voronezh, Rostov) of NIS countries. The combination of several preparation techniques, developed in different institutions, lowers the risk to reach the main goal of the Project. Strong theoretical background of different institutions gives a unique opportunity to develop the fundamentals of the physics of the desired structures and to predict new properties and bases for functioning of the proposed devices.
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
Data not availableCoordinator
CB2 3EQ Cambridge
United Kingdom