| 1. |
- Chen, Si, 1982-
(författare)
-
Electronic Sensors Based on Nanostructured Field-Effect Devices
- 2013
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Point-of-care (POC) diagnostics presents a giant market opportunity with profound societal impact. In particular, specific detection of DNA and protein markers can be essential for early diagnosis of e.g. cancer, cardiovascular disease, infections or allergies. Today, identification of these markers often requires extensive laboratory work and hence is expensive and time consuming. Current methods for recognition and detection of specific biomolecules are mostly optics based and thus impose severe limitations as to convenience, specificity, sensitivity, parallel processing and cost reduction.Electronic sensors based on silicon nanowire field-effect transistors have been reported to be able to detect biomolecules with concentrations down to femtomolar (fM) level with high specificity. Although the reported capability needs further confirmation, the CMOS-compatible fabrication process of such sensors allows for low cost production and high density integration, which are favorable for POC applications. This thesis mainly focuses on the development of a multiplex detection platform based on silicon nanowire field-effect sensors integrated with a microfluidic system for liquid sample delivery. Extensive work was dedicated to developing a top-down fabrication process of the sensors as well as an effective passivation scheme. The operation mechanism and coupling efficiencies of different gate configurations were studied experimentally with the assistance of numerical simulation and equivalent circuits. Using pH sensing as a model system, large effort was devoted to identifying sources for false responses resulting from the instability of the inert-metal gate electrode. In addition, the drift mechanism of the sensor operating in electrolyte was addressed and a calibration model was proposed. Furthermore, protein detection experiments were performed using small-sized Affibody molecules as receptors on the gate insulator to tackle the Debye screening issue. Preliminary results showed that the directionality of the current changes in the sensors was in good agreement with the charge polarities of the proteins. Finally, a graphene-based capacitor was examined as an alternative to the nanowire device for field-effect ion sensing. Our initial attempts showed some attractive features of the capacitor sensor.
|
|
| 2. |
- Zhou, Jingjian, 1993-
(författare)
-
Luminescent Silicon Nanocrystals: From Single Quantum Dot to Light-harvesting Devices
- 2022
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Silicon (Si) serves as the basic material of the system-on-a-chip industry and photovoltaic panels nowadays. This is mostly thanks to its high abundance in the earth’s crust, thereby low cost, virtually non-toxicity, and superior stability. Nano-silicon, especially silicon quantum dots (Si QDs), is endowed by the quantum confinement effect with the ability to emit light efficiently under photoexcitation, different from the bulk counterpart. The bright photoluminescence (PL), first found in the 1990s, has paved the way for this nanomaterial to be applied for light conversions in the last decades, such as for biosensing/biolabeling, light emitting diodes and luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs). The latter is used to concentrate sunlight in the slab on the edge-attached solar cells by means of PL. This thesis, on the one hand, deepens the comprehension on the optical properties of Si QDs by single-dot spectroscopy; on the other hand, a low-cost mass synthesis of high-quality Si QDs is developed here, which favors high QD loading applications, demonstrated as large-area “quantum dot glass”. First, the photo-physics mechanism behind PL was studied by single-dot spectroscopy, excluding the QD size inhomogeneity in the ensemble measurements. A new method was developed to fabricate large-area (~mm2) isolated oxide-passivated Si QDs on a silicon-on-insulator wafer. Linearly polarized PLs were observed on those single dots. System-limited PL linewidths, ~250 μeV, were measured at 10 K on QDs here, indicating a good quality of oxide shell endowed by high temperature annealing. Based on this method, it is possible to modify the ambient optical environment of QDs without tenuous alignments. With Si QDs residing on a metal membrane with an oxide spacer, the PL yields of single dots were enhanced ~10 times in average compared to those residing outside the membrane. Next, we have achieved, for the first time, direct observation on the temperature-dependent radiative lifetimes on single ligand-passivated Si QDs. Most importantly, these single-dot PL decays can be well-fitted mono-exponentially, indicating trap-free dynamics, as opposite to oxide-passivated counterparts. Secondly, a chemical synthesis method of ligand-passivated Si QDs by using triethoxysilane (TES) as precursors is introduced. The quantum yield of as-synthesized Si QDs is ~40% in solution and ~55% in Si QDs/polymer nanocomposites. Such QDs have near-unity internal quantum efficiency both in the liquid and solid phase. With a comparably good quality of Si QDs, the QD cost of this TES method is about an order of magnitude less expensive than that of the established HSQ method. Finally, the application of Si QDs in photovoltaic devices was demonstrated. A 9 × 9 × 0.6 cm3 LSC device based on Si QDs was fabricated, delivering ~7.9% optical power conversion efficiency under one standard sun. This performance is very similar to the state of the art of direct-bandgap semiconductor QDs. To further expand the application area of this kind of transparent photovoltaic devices, a concept of transparent “quantum dot glass” (TQDG) is introduced, fulfilling requirements as both power-generating components and building construction materials. A 20 × 20 × 1 cm3 TQDG device was fabricated with the overall power conversion efficiency up to 1.57% and the average visible transmittance 84%. The light utilization efficiency (LUE) is 1.3%, which is among the top reported TPVs based on the LSC technology with a similar size. Moreover, to facilitate the characterization of large-area LSC-like light-harvesting devices a new concept of an “optical center” is introduced. A procedure of whole device PCE estimates from optical center excitation measurements with basic laboratory instruments was provided, with a negligible error to the measured one by the conventional method.
|
|
| 3. |
- Pevere, Federico
(författare)
-
Optical Properties of Single Silicon Quantum Dots
- 2018
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- For over 60 years silicon (Si) has dominated the semiconductor microelectronics industry mainly due to its abundance and good electrical and material properties. The advanced processing technology of Si has made it the workhorse for photovoltaics industry as well. However, this material has also a big drawback: it is an indirect-bandgap semiconductor in its bulk form, hence an inefficient light emitter. This has hindered the silicon photonics revolution envisioned in 1980s, where photons were thought to replace electrons inside computer chips.In parallel with the exponential scaling of Si transistor's size over the years, the discovery of quantum phenomena at the nanoscale raised new hopes for this semiconductor. In the 1990s bright luminescence from nanostructured porous Si was demonstrated claiming the quantum confinement effect as origin of the emission. Since then, an intense research activity has been focused on Si quantum dots (Si-QDs) due to their potential use as abundant and non-toxic light emitters. More precisely, they could be used as fluorescent biolabels in biomedicine, as light-emitting phosphors in e.g. TV screens or as down-converters in luminescent solar concentrators. Nevertheless, in order to realize such applications, it is necessary not only to improve the fabrication of Si-QDs but also to gain a better understanding of their photo-physics. Among different types of optical measurements, those performed at the single-dot level are free of sample inhomogeneities, hence more accurate for a correct physical description.This doctoral thesis presents a study of the optical properties of single Si-QDs of different type: encapsulated in an oxide matrix, capped with ligands or covered by a thin passivation layer. The homogeneous photoluminescence (PL) linewidth is found to strongly depend on the type of embedding matrix, being narrower for less rigid ones. A record resolution-limited linewidth of ~200 μeV is measured at low temperatures whereas room-temperature values can even compete with direct-bandgap QDs like CdSe. Such narrow PL lines exhibit intensity saturation at high excitation fluxes without any indication of emission from multiexciton states, suggesting the presence of fast non-radiative Auger recombination. Characteristic Auger-related lifetimes extracted from power-dependent decays show a variation from dot-to-dot and confirm the low biexciton quantum efficiency.For the first time, the absorption curve of single Si-QDs is probed by means of photoluminescence excitation in the range 2.0-3.5 eV. A step-like structure is found which depends on the nanocrystal shape considered and agrees well with simulations of the exciton level structure. Rod-like Si-QDs can exhibit ~50 times higher absorption than spherical-like ones due to local field effects and enhanced optical transitions. In contrast with previous studies, evidence of a direct-bandgap red-shift for small Si-QDs is missing at the single dot level, in agreement with atomistic calculations.Low-temperature PL decay measurements reveal no triplet-like emission lines, but two ~μs decay constants appearing at low temperatures. They suggest presence of a temperature-dependent fast blinking process based on trapping/detrapping of carriers in the oxide matrix, leading to delayed emission. The proposed model allows to extract characteristic trapping/de-trapping rates for Si-QDs featuring mono-exponential blinking statistics. From PL saturation curves, ligand-passivated Si-QDs do not exhibit such detrimental phenomenon, in agreement with the proposed model.Last, Si-QDs demonstrate to be very hard against ~10 keV X-ray radiation, in contrast with CdSe-QDs whose PL quenching is correlated with a change in the blinking parameters. This property could be exploited for example in space applications, where radiation-hard materials are required.To conclude, the results achieved in this thesis will help to understand and engineer the properties of Si-QDs whose application potential has increased after several years of research both at the ensemble and at the single-dot level.
|
|
| 4. |
- Sangghaleh, Fatemeh
(författare)
-
Carrier Dynamics in Single Luminescent Silicon Quantum Dots
- 2015
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Bulk silicon as an indirect bandgap semiconductor is a poor light emitter. In contrast, silicon nanocrystals (Si NCs) exhibit strong emission even at room temperature, discovered initially at 1990 for porous silicon by Leigh Canham. This can be explained by the indirect to quasi-direct bandgap modification of nano-sized silicon according to the already well-established model of quantum confinement.In the absence of deep understanding of numerous fundamental optical properties of Si NCs, it is essential to study their photoluminescence (PL) characteristics at the single-dot level. This thesis presents new experimental results on various photoluminescence mechanisms in single silicon quantum dots (Si QDs).The visible and near infrared emission of Si NCs are believed to originate from the band-to-band recombination of quantum confined excitons. However, the mechanism of such process is not well understood yet. Through time-resolved PL decay spectroscopy of well-separated single Si QDs, we first quantitatively established that the PL decay character varies from dot-to-dot and the individual lifetime dispersion results in the stretched exponential decays of ensembles. We then explained the possible origin of such variations by studying radiative and non-radiative decay channels in single Si QDs. For this aim the temperature dependence of the PL decay were studied. We further demonstrated a model based on resonance tunneling of the excited carriers to adjacent trap sites in single Si QDs which explains the well-known thermal quenching effect.Despite the long PL lifetime of Si NCs, which limits them for optoelectronics applications, they are ideal candidates for biomedical imaging, diagnostic purposes, and phosphorescence applications, due to the non-toxicity, biocompability and material abundance of silicon. Therefore, measuring quantum efficiency of Si NCs is of great importance, while a consistency in the reported values is still missing. By direct measurements of the optical absorption cross-section for single Si QDs, we estimated a more precise value of internal quantum efficiency (IQE) for single dots in the current study. Moreover, we verified IQE of ligand-passivated Si NCs to be close to 100%, due to the results obtained from spectrally-resolved PL decay studies. Thus, ligand-passivated silicon nanocrystals appear to differ substantially from oxide-encapsulated particles, where any value from 0 % to 100 % could be measured. Therefore, further investigation on passivation parameters is strongly suggested to optimize the efficiency of silicon nanocrystals systems.
|
|
| 5. |
- Sinno, Hiam, 1983-
(författare)
-
Polyelectrolyte-Gated Organic Field Effect Transistors – Printing and Electrical Stability
- 2013
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The progress in materials science during recent decades along with the steadily growing desire to accomplish novel functionalities in electronic devices and the continuous strive to achieve a more efficient manufacturing process such as low‐cost robust high‐volume printing techniques, has brought the organic electronics field to light. For example, organic field effect transistors (OFETs) are the fundamental building blocks of flexible electronics. OFETs present several potential advantages, such as solution processability of organic materials enabling their deposition by various printing methods at low processing temperatures, the possibility to coat large areas, and the mechanical flexibility of polymers that is compatible with plastic substrates. Employing polyelectrolytes as gate insulators in OFETs allows low‐voltage operation in the range of 1 V, suppresses unintended electrochemical doping of the semiconductor bulk, and provides tolerance to thicker gate insulator layers and to the gate electrode alignment over the channel which eases the design and manufacturing requirements. These features place polyelectrolyte‐gated OFETs (EGOFETs) as promising candidates to be realized in lowcost, large‐area, light‐weight, flexible electronic applications.The work in this thesis focuses on EGOFETs and their manufacturing using the inkjet printing technology. EGOFETs have been previously demonstrated using conventional manufacturing techniques. Several challenges have to be overcome when attempting to achieve a fully printed EGOFET, with the incompatible wetting characteristics of the semiconductor/polyelectrolyte interface being one of the main problems. This issue is addressed in paper I and paper II. Paper I presents a surface modification treatment where an amphiphilic diblock copolymer is deposited on the surface to enable the printability of the semiconductor on top of the polyelectrolyte. Paper II introduces an amphiphilic semiconducting copolymer that can switch its surface from hydrophobic to hydrophilic, when spread as thin film, upon exposure to water. Moreover, characterization of the reliability and stability of EGOFETs in terms of bias stress is reported. Bias stress is an undesired operational instability, usually manifested as a decay in the drain current, triggered by the gradual shift of the threshold voltage of the transistor under prolonged operation. This effect has been extensively studied in different OFET structures, but a proper understanding of how it is manifested in EGOFETs is still lacking. Bias stress depends strongly on the material, how it is processed, and on the transistor operating conditions. Papers III and IV report bias stress effects in EGOFET devices and inverters, respectively. The proposed mechanism involves an electron transfer reaction between adsorbed water and the charged semiconductor channel, which promotes the generation of extra protons that subsequently diffuse into the polyelectrolyte. Understanding and controlling the mechanism of bias stress in EGOFETs is crucial for further advancements and development towards commercially viable organic transistor circuits.
|
|
| 6. |
- Zhang, Miao, 1985-
(författare)
-
Silicon Nanopore Arrays : Fabrication and Applications for DNA Sensing
- 2018
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Nanopore biomolecule sensing and sequencing has emerged as a simple but powerful tool for single molecule studies over the past two decades. By elec- trophoretically driving single molecules through a nanometer-sized pore, often sitting in an insulating membrane that separates two buffer solutions, ionic current blockades can be detected to reveal rich information of the molecules, such as DNA length, protein size and conformation, even nucleic acid se- quence. Biological protein pores, as well as solid-state nanopores have been used, but both suffer from relatively low throughput due to the lack of abil- ity to scale up to a large array. In this thesis, we tackled the throughput issue from the fabrication aspect as well as from the detection aspect, aim- ing at a parallel optical single molecule sensing on an array of well-separated nanopores.From the fabrication aspect, several lithography-based self-regulating meth- ods were tested to obtain nanopore arrays in silicon membranes, including anisotropic KOH etching, thermal oxidation-induced pore shrinkage, metal- assisted etching and electrochemical etching. Among those, the most success- ful method was the electrochemical etching of silicon. By electron-beam or photo lithography, the positions of the pores were defined on a silicon mem- brane. Followed by anisotropic KOH etching, inverted pyramids were formed as etching pits. The nanopores were then formed by anodic etching of silicon in HF. Using this concept, the size of the pores does not depend on the lithog- raphy step; only the positions of pores were defined by lithography. In this way, an array of ∼ 900 pores with an average entrance diameter of 18 ± 4 nm was fabricated on a 120 μm × 120 μm membrane.From the detection aspect, parallel readout of fluorescence signals from the labelled DNA molecules while translocating through an array of nanopores was performed using a wide-field microscope with a relatively fast CMOS camera recording at 1 KHz frame rate. Statistics of duration and frequency of the translocation events were extracted and studied. It was found that the event duration decreases with rising excitation laser power. This can be attributed to a laser-induced heating effect. Simulation suggested that a sig- nificant thermal gradient was generated at the pore vicinity by the excitation laser due to photon absorption by the silicon membrane. Such temperature rise affects all mass transport in a solution via a viscosity change. The ther- mal effect has also been proven by that conductance of an array of nanopores scales with the laser power. The thermal effect on the translocation frequency has been studied systematically as well. Due to thermophoresis of DNA in a thermal gradient, the thermophoretic force serves as a repulsion force, op- posing the electrophoretic force at the pore vicinity, depleting molecules away from the pore. Because of the molecule-size-dependent thermal depletion, a size-dependent translocation frequency was observed. This can be potentially used for a high throughput molecule sorting by adjusting the balance between the thermophoretic force and the electrophoretic force.
|
|
| 7. |
- Andersson, Henrik, 1975-
(författare)
-
Position Sensitive Detectors : Device Technology and Applications in Spectroscopy
- 2008
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis deals with the development, processing and characterization of position sensitive detectors and, in addition, to the development of compact and cost effective spectrometers. Position sensitive detectors are used to measure, with great accuracy and speed, the position of a light spot incident on the surface. Their main use is for triangulation, displacement and vibration measurements. A type of position sensitive detector based on the MOS principle and using optically transparent indium tin oxide as a gate contact has been developed. This type of detector utilizes the MOS principle where an induced channel forms beneath the gate oxide in the surface of the Silicon substrate. One and two dimensional detectors have both been fabricated and characterized. The first measurements showed that the linearity did not fulfil expectations and it was suspected that stress induced by the gate contact could be the reason for the seemingly high nonlinearity. Further investigations into both the p-n junction and the MOS type position sensitive detectors lead to the conclusion that the indium tin oxide gate is responsible for inducing a substantial stress in the surface of the detector, thus giving rise to increased position nonlinearity. The heat treatment step which was conducted was determined to be critical as either a too short or too long heat treatment resulted in stress in the gate and channel leading to position nonlinearity. If a correctly timed heat treatment is performed then the detector’s linearity is in parity with the best commercial position sensitive detectors. In addition, the development of very small, compact and cost effective spectrometers has been performed with the aim of constructing devices for use in the process industry. The development of a wedge shaped array of Fabry-Perot interferometers that can be mounted directly on top of a detector makes it possible to construct a very compact spectrometer using the minimum amount of optics. This wedge interferometer has been evaluated by means of array pixel detectors and position sensitive detectors for both the infrared and the visible wavelength ranges. When used with a position sensitive detector it is necessary to use a slit to record the intensity of the interferogram for many points over the detector, equivalent to pixels on an array detector. Usually the use of moving parts in a spectrometer will impose the use of high precision scanning mechanisms and calibration. By using a position sensitive detector for the interferogram readout both the position and the intensity are known for every measurement point and thus the demands placed on the scanning system are minimized.
|
|
| 8. |
- Bruhn, Benjamin, 1981-
(författare)
-
Fabrication and characterization of single luminescing quantum dots from 1D silicon nanostructures
- 2012
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Silicon as a mono-crystalline bulk semiconductor is today the predominant material in many integrated electronic and photovoltaic applications. This has not been the case in lighting technology, since due to its indirect bandgap nature bulk silicon is an inherently poor light emitter.With the discovery of efficient light emission from silicon nanostructures, great new interest arose and research in this area increased dramatically.However, despite more than two decades of research on silicon nanocrystals and nanowires, not all aspects of their light emission mechanisms and optical properties are well understood, yet.There is great potential for a range of applications, such as light conversion (phosphor substitute), emission (LEDs) and harvesting (solar cells), but for efficient implementation the underlying mechanisms have to be unveiled and understood.Investigation of single quantum emitters enable proper understanding and modeling of the nature and correlation of different optical, electrical and geometric properties.In large numbers, such sets of experiments ensure statistical significance. These two objectives can best be met when a large number of luminescing nanostructures are placed in a pattern that can easily be navigated with different measurement methods.This thesis presents a method for the (optional) simultaneous fabrication of luminescent zero- and one-dimensional silicon nanostructuresand deals with their structural and optical characterization.Nanometer-sized silicon walls are defined by electron beam lithography and plasma etching. Subsequent oxidation in the self-limiting regime reduces the size of the silicon core unevenly and passivates it with a thermal oxide layer.Depending on the oxidation time, nanowires, quantum dots or a mixture of both types of structures can be created.While electron microscopy yields structural information, different photoluminescence measurements, such as time-integrated and time-resolved imaging, spectral imaging, lifetime measurements and absorption and emission polarization measurements, are used to gain knowledge about optical properties and light emission mechanisms in single silicon nanocrystals.The fabrication method used in this thesis yields a large number of spatially separated luminescing quantum dots randomly distributed along a line, or a slightly smaller number that can be placed at well-defined coordinates. Single dot measurements can be performed even with an optical microscope and the pattern, in which the nanostructures are arranged, enables the experimenter to easily find the same individual dot in different measurements.Spectral measurements on the single dot level reveal information about processes that are involved in the photoluminescence of silicon nanoparticles and yield proof for the atomic-like quantized nature of energy levels in the conduction and valence band, as evidenced by narrow luminescence lines (~500 µeV) at low temperature. Analysis of the blinking sheds light on the charging mechanisms of oxide-capped Si-QDs and, by exposing exponential on- and off-time distributions instead of the frequently observed power law distributions, argues in favor of the absence of statistical aging. Experiments probing the emission intensity as a function of excitation power suggest that saturation is not achieved. Both absorption and emission of silicon nanocrystals contained in a one-dimensional silicon dioxide matrix are polarized to a high degree. Many of the results obtained in this work seem to strengthen the arguments that oxide-capped silicon quantum dots have universal properties, independently of the fabrication method, and that the greatest differences between individual nanocrystals are indeed caused by individual factors like local environment, shape and size (among others).
|
|
| 9. |
- Ciobanu, V., et al.
(författare)
-
Large-Sized Nanocrystalline Ultrathin β-Ga2 O3 Membranes Fabricated by Surface Charge Lithography
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Nanomaterials. - : MDPI AG. - 2079-4991. ; 12:4
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Large-sized 2D semiconductor materials have gained significant attention for their fascinat-ing properties in various applications. In this work, we demonstrate the fabrication of nanoperforated ultrathin β-Ga2 O3 membranes of a nanoscale thickness. The technological route includes the fabrication of GaN membranes using the Surface Charge Lithography (SCL) approach and subsequent thermal treatment in air at 900◦ C in order to obtain β-Ga2 O3 membranes. The as-grown GaN membranes were discovered to be completely transformed into β-Ga2 O3, with the morphology evolving from a smooth topography to a nanoperforated surface consisting of nanograin structures. The oxidation mechanism of the membrane was investigated under different annealing conditions followed by XPS, AFM, Raman and TEM analyses.
|
|
| 10. |
|
|
