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Zawartość zarchiwizowana w dniu 2022-12-23

Carbon nano-clusters with adjustable physical properties formed by fullerene fragmentation

Cel

The topic of the proposed project is mainly related to the field of fabrication and characterization of the ensembles of supported clusters which can be used for the development of the new generation of electronic devices such as a single-electron transistor (SET), a single-electron memory (SEM), lasers and other optical devices. There are at least three important and unsolved problems in this field: how to decrease the cluster sizes down to 1 nm, how to create cluster ensembles with low (zero) size dispersion and how to tune the physical properties of clusters. The main objective of the project is development of the physical background of the controlled method of creation of the ensembles of small (<1 nm) supported clusters with extremely low size dispersion and with properties which can be transformed by the variation of the band gap and the density of states near Fermi-level according to design: from semiconductive to "conductive" ones. The basic idea of the project is
1). to start with the use of the ensembles of supported fullerenes (or projectile fullerenes) which are characterized by certain number of carbon atoms and by low sizes (C60 - 7.34 A), and;
2). to transform fullerenes into carbon clusters with certain degree of amorphisation.

Note that high surface mobility of fullerenes and wide band gap make pristine fullerenes questionable for pointed applications. But this mobility is planned to be used to solve one more problem - to align clusters into wires and chains along the surface minimum potential relief, e.g. along the epitaxial atomic steps.

To reach the main aim, additional objectives are suggested in the project:
1). to consider a wide range of possible mechanisms of fragmentation of fullerenes in their collisions with electrons, ions (including multiply charged ions) and surfaces, and to find the better conditions for the creation of carbon cluster ensembles;
2). to investigate electronic properties and geometrical parameters of the carbon clusters created by the fullerene fragmentation, and;
3). to study the processes of modification of physical properties of carbon clusters by heating and under electron and ion bombardment. The exact mechanisms for the decay of fullerenes remain unclear up to now. Mechanisms of Coulomb explosion, fragmentation due to plasmon excitation, fullerene decomposition due to switching over intermolecular chemical bonds, direct knock out and fullerene heating by an incident ion will be considered and the better conditions for the creation of amorphous carbon clusters with required electronic properties will be established. The important thing is that these clusters are the new physical object differing considerably from the known fullerenes, metallic and semiconductor clusters whose properties cannot be changed. By the variation of the degree of amorphization it is expected to find the way to modify and to tune the cluster electronic properties.

To demonstrate the project's applied potential, the collective transport properties of the obtained cluster ensembles will be studied. Effects important for the designing SET (such as Coulomb blockade of a channel due to charging of the cluster by single electron, stepwise variation of current in applying electric field) is expected to show. The experiments will be performed with several techniques including electron and ion spectroscopies, scanning tunnelling microscopy, time-of-flight mass spectroscopy, and others. Part of the research is planned to be performed at the synchrotron-radiation facility in Berlin (BESSY-2) at the Russian-German beamline in joint experiments.

Zaproszenie do składania wniosków

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System finansowania

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Koordynator

University Groningen
Wkład UE
Brak danych
Adres
Zernikelaan 25
9747 AA Groningen
Niderlandy

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Koszt całkowity
Brak danych

Uczestnicy (5)