FePt/B4C multilayer thin films are deposited on silicon substrates using magnetron sputtering with different B4C layer thickness. Experimental results suggest that the B4C layers effectively serve as spacers to separate the FePt layers, making the multilayer configuration stable even after film annealing at elevated temperatures. On the other hand, B and C are found to be incorporated into the FePt layer, which is responsible for the FePt grain growth confinement and grain separation, and eventually affects the properties of the composite film. Based on the experimental results of multilayer composite film, particle (FePt)/matrix (B4C) monolayer composite thin films on Si substrate are synthesized, in which a record coercivity of 2200 Oe is achieved compared to similar system. The size uniformity of the FePt nanoparticles, the well-defined particle-particle separation, together with the good magnetic property and high temperature thermal stability of the overall composite film, make it a very promising candidate for the ultrahigh density magnetic storage media. / Functional nanostructures serve as the basic building blocks for nanodevices and significant efforts have been devoted to their morphology control and properties optimization. In present study, four functional nanostructures, i.e., FePt/B4C multilayer composite film, particle (FePt)/matrix (B4C) monolayer composite film, Ga-doped ZnO nanowire arrays, and CdSe nanotube arrays are designed, synthesized and characterized in detail, in which the first two are expected to be prominent candidates for ultrahigh-density magnetic storage media while the later two have potential applications in solar energy conversion. / Semiconductor based one-dimensional nanostructures are investigated as promising building blocks for solar energy conversion devices. Two aspects are explored, aiming at increasing the energy conversion efficiency, i.e., facilitating electron transport and enhancing photon absorbing. In the first case, large area Ga-doped ZnO nanowire arrays are grown on transparent conducting substrate. Experimental results reveal the well-aligned array morphology and the uniform Ga concentration in these nanowires. In particular, direct I-V measurements performed on single nanowire-on-ITO substrate disclose its Ohmic contact with the conducting substrate and the significant conductivity improvement compared to undoped ZnO nanowire, In the second case, a novel synthesis strategy for nanotube arrays is developed and CdSe is used for demonstration, which material possessing more appropriate band gap as effective light harvester compared to that of materials for existing semiconductor nanotube arrays. The controllable tube wall thickness that can be increased until continuous CdSe porous network is obtained. The experimental results suggest a nanotube array formation mechanism that can be generally applied to a wide range of materials. / Zhou, Minjie = 功能纳米结构在磁性和能源方面的应用 / 周民杰. / Adviser: Li Quan. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 72-11, Section: B, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 91-100). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese. / Zhou, Minjie = Gong neng na mi jie gou zai ci xing he neng yuan fang mian de ying yong / Zhou Minjie.

The positive temperature coefficient of resistivity (PTCR) sensors is resistor materials that undergo a sharp change in resistivity at a designed Curie temperature due to its unique structure and chemical composition. This effect serves important control functions in a wide variety of electronic circuitry and similar applications. Conventional calcining of mixed oxides method (CMO) is used for fabricating lanthanum doped barium titanate (BaTiO3) for PTCR behaviour through solid-state-sintering route, at 1100°C, 1350°C. Two batches of samples were fabricated at low and high sintering temperatures of 1100°C, 1350°C respectively. The effect of different concentrations of donor dopant on BaTiO3 on the electrical properties of Ba(1-x)LaxTiO3 with x= 0.0005, 0.001, 0.002, 0.0025, 0.003 mol%, is investigated at low sintering temperature. The influence of lantanum doping with Al2O3+SiO2+TiO2 (AST) as sintering aids on the electrical properties of Ba(1-x)LaxTiO3 with x= 0.0005, 0.001, 0.003 mol%, is also investigated. The results of the electrical characterization for the first batch of samples showed an increase in room temperature resistance with increaisng donor concentration. Also the results of the electrical characterization for the second batch of samples also showed the same increase in room temperature resistance with increasing donor concentration. For first batch of sensors the high room temperature resistance keeps the jump small and these materials showed V-shaped NTCR-PTCR multifunctional cryogenic sensor behavior with a strong negative coefficient of resistance effect at room temperature.Where as the second batch of sensors showed few orders of magnitude rise in resistivity values. The La-doped BaTiO3 ceramics co-doped with Mn gives an enhanced PTCR effect which can be exploited for various sensor applications.

The electronics industry is shifting its emphasis from reducing transistor size and operational frequency to increasing device integration, reducing form factor and increasing the interface of electronics with their surroundings. This new emphasis has created increased demands on the electronic package. To accomplish the goals to increase device integration and interfaces will undoubtedly require new materials with increased functionality both electrically and mechanically. This thesis focuses on developing new interconnect and printable conductive materials capable of providing power, ground and signal transmission with enhanced electrical performance and mechanical flexibility and robustness. More specifically, we develop: 1.) A new understanding of the conduction mechanism in electrically conductive composites (ECC). 2.) Develop highly conductive stretchable silicone ECC (S-ECC) via in-situ nanoparticle formation and sintering. 3.) Fabricate and test stretchable radio frequency devices based on S-ECC. 4.) Develop techniques and processes necessary to fabricate a stretchable package for stretchable electronic and radio frequency devices. In this thesis we provide convincing evidence that conduction in ECC occurs predominantly through secondary charge transport mechanism (tunneling, hopping). Furthermore, we develop a stretchable silicone-based ECC which, through the incorporation of a special additive, can form and sinter nanoparticles on the surface of the metallic conductive fillers. This sintering process decreases the contact resistance and enhances conductivity of the composite. The conductive composite developed has the best reported conductivity, stretchability and reliability. Using this S-ECC we fabricate a stretchable microstrip line with good performance up to 6 GHz and a stretchable antenna with good return loss and bandwidth. The work presented provides a foundation to create high performance stretchable electronic packages and radio frequency devices for curvilinear spaces. Future development of these technologies will enable the fabrication of ultra-low stress large area interconnects, reconfigurable antennas and other electronic and RF devices where the ability to flex and stretch provides additional functionality impossible using conventional rigid electronics.

The positive temperature coefficient of resistivity (PTCR) sensors is resistor materials that undergo a sharp change in resistivity at a designed Curie temperature due to its unique structure and chemical composition. This effect serves important control functions in a wide variety of electronic circuitry and similar applications. Conventional calcining of mixed oxides method (CMO) is used for fabricating lanthanum doped barium titanate (BaTiO3) for PTCR behaviour through solid-state-sintering route, at 1100°C, 1350°C. Two batches of samples were fabricated at low and high sintering temperatures of 1100°C, 1350°C respectively. The effect of different concentrations of donor dopant on BaTiO3 on the electrical properties of Ba(1-x)LaxTiO3 with x= 0.0005, 0.001, 0.002, 0.0025, 0.003 mol%, is investigated at low sintering temperature. The influence of lantanum doping with Al2O3+SiO2+TiO2 (AST) as sintering aids on the electrical properties of Ba(1-x)LaxTiO3 with x= 0.0005, 0.001, 0.003 mol%, is also investigated. The results of the electrical characterization for the first batch of samples showed an increase in room temperature resistance with increaisng donor concentration. Also the results of the electrical characterization for the second batch of samples also showed the same increase in room temperature resistance with increasing donor concentration. For first batch of sensors the high room temperature resistance keeps the jump small and these materials showed V-shaped NTCR-PTCR multifunctional cryogenic sensor behavior with a strong negative coefficient of resistance effect at room temperature.Where as the second batch of sensors showed few orders of magnitude rise in resistivity values. The La-doped BaTiO3 ceramics co-doped with Mn gives an enhanced PTCR effect which can be exploited for various sensor applications.

DC resistance and AC conductance and capacitance have been measured under various conditions in an effort to electrically characterize and make electrical-mechanical correlations for 15 carbon black filled rubber samples. Resistance, conductance and capacitance have been monitored as functions of uniaxial compressive stress, time, temperature, and mechanical and thermal history. Capacitance and conductance have also been monitored as functions of frequency under various degrees of compressive loading and before and after specific heat treatments. A direct relationship has been found between sample • conductance and capacitance under any thermal and/or mechanical condition. This is in agreement with previous theories of conduction network formation and percolation. Various conduction mechanisms have been enumerated and an equivalent circuit of a network of lumped R-C "microelements'' has been qualitatively described. Stress, relaxation, frequency, and temperature dependences of the macroscopic parameters measured ( conductivity and capacitance) are discussed in terms of this model. / M.S.

One of the most important electrical requirements in high performance electronic systems or high speed integrated circuits, is to process larger numbers of electrical signals at much higher speeds. Signal propagation delay must be minimized in order to maximize signal velocities. Therefore, material with low dielectric constant and low dissipation factor is being sought. In this thesis research measurements of dielectric constant and dissipation factor were performed on commercially available polyimides that are used in multilayer interconnect structures. Capacitor structures with a polyimide dielectric were measured up to a 1GHz frequency and 220°C temperature. Polyimides were concluded to be compatible for use in high performance systems such as multilayer interconnect structures.

Solution processed circuits are expected to be the main components to achieve low cost, large area, flexible electronics. However, the commercialization of solution processed flexible electronics face several challenges. The passive component such as capacitors are limited in frequency range and operating voltage. The active component such as transistors suffer from low mobility ultimately leading to limited current-carrying capacity. Just as in traditional silicon technology, the fabrication process and material choices significantly impact the performance of the fabricated devices. My thesis focuses on the optimization of the performance of printed capacitors and transistors through investigation of several aspects of the device structure and fabrication process. The first part of this work focuses on the optimization of printed nanoparticle/polymer composite capacitors. Thin film metal oxide nanoparticle/polymer composites have enormous potential to achieve printable high-k dielectrics. The combination of high-k ceramic nanoparticle and polymer enables room temperature deposition of high dielectric constant film without the need of high temperature sintering process. The polymer matrix host fills the packing voids left behind by the nanoparticles resulting to higher effective dielectric permittivity as a system and suppresses surface states leading to reduced dielectric loss. Such composite systems have been employed in a number of flexible electronic applications such as the dielectrics in capacitors and thin film transistors. One of the most important properties of thin film capacitors is the breakdown field. In a typical capacitor system, the breakdown process leads to catastrophic failure that destroys the capacitor; however, in a nanoparticle/polymer composite system with self-healing property, the point of breakdown is not well-defined. The breakdown of the dielectric or electrodes in the system limits the leakage observed. It is possible, however, to define a voltage/field tolerance. Field tolerance is defined as the highest practical field at which the device stays operational with low failure rate by qualifying the devices with defined leakage current density. In my work, the optimization of the field tolerance of (Ba,Sr)TiO₃ (BST)/parylene-C composite capacitors is achieved by studying the influence of the electromigration parameter on leakage and field strength through the inherit asymmetrical structure of the fabricated capacitors. One approach to creating these composites is to use a spin-coated nanoparticle film together with vapor deposited polymers, which can yield high performance, but also forms a structurally asymmetric device. The performance of a nanoparticle BST/parylene-C composite capacitor is compared to that of a nanoparticle BST capacitor without the polymer layer under both directions of bias. The composite device shows a five orders of magnitude improvement in the leakage current under positive bias of the bottom electrode relative to the pure-particle device, and four orders of magnitude improvement when the top electrode is positively biased. The voltage tolerance of the device is also improved, and it is asymmetric (44 V vs. 28 V in bottom and top positive bias, respectively). This study demonstrates the advantage of this class of composite device construction, but also shows that proper application of the device bias in this type of asymmetrical system can yield an additional benefit. The dependence of the field tolerance of nanoparticle/polymer composite capacitors on the electromigration parameter of the electrodes is investigated using the symmetrical dielectric system. The breakdown is suppressed by selecting the polarity used in nanoparticle (Ba,Sr)TiO₃/parylene-C composite film-based capacitors. Metals including gold, silver, copper, chromium, and aluminum with comparable surface conditions were examined as the electrodes. The asymmetric silver, aluminum, gold, copper, and chromium electrode devices show a 64 %, 29 %, 28 %, 17 %, 33 %, improvement in the effective maximum operating field, respectively, when comparing bias polarity. The field at which filament formation is observed shows a clear dependence on the electromigration properties of the electrode material and demonstrates that use of electromigration resistant metal electrodes offers an additional route to improving the performance of capacitors using this nanoparticle/polymer composite architecture. The second part of my thesis focuses on the novel pneumatic printing process that enables manipulation of the crystal growth of the organic semiconductors to achieve oriented crystal with high mobility. Small molecule organic semiconductors are attracting immense attention as the active material for the large-area flexible electronics due to their solution processability, mechanical flexibility, and potential for high performance. However, the ability to rapidly pattern and deposit multiple materials and control the thin-film morphology are significant challenges facing industrial scale production. A novel and simple pneumatic nozzle printing approach is developed to control the crystallization of organic thin-films and deposit multiple materials with wide range of viscosity including on the same substrate. Pneumatic printing uses capillary action between the nozzle and substrate combined with control of air pressure to dispense the solution from a dispense tip with a reservoir. Orientation and size of the crystals is controlled by tuning the printing direction, speed, and the temperature of the substrate. The main advantages of pneumatic printing technique are 1) simple setup and process, 2) multi-material layered deposition applicable to wide range of solution viscosity, 3) control over crystal growth. The manipulation of crystal growth will be discussed in the next chapter. This method for performance optimization and patterning has great potential for advancing printed electronics. The dependence of the mobility of printed thin film 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl) pentacene [TIPS-pentacene] and C8-BTBT on printing conditions is investigated, and the result indicates that the formation of well-ordered crystals occurs at an optimal head translation speed. A maximum mobility of 0.75 cm²/(Vs) is achieved with 0.3 mm/s printing speed and 1.3 cm²/(Vs) with 0.3 mm/s printing speed at 50C for TIPS-pentacene and C8-BTBT respectively. In summary, pneumatic printing technique can be an attractive route to industrial scale large area flexible electronics fabrication.

Silicon-based nanostructures are essential building blocks for nanoelectronic devices and nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS), and their mechanical and electrical properties play an important role in controlling the functionality and reliability of the nano-devices. The objective of this dissertation is twofold: The first is to investigate the mechanical properties of silicon nanolines (SiNLs) with feature size scaled into the tens of nanometer level. And the second is to study the electron transport in nickel silicide formed on the SiNLs. For the first study, a fabrication process was developed to form nanoscale Si lines using an anisotropic wet etching technique. The SiNLs possessed straight and nearly atomically flat sidewalls, almost perfectly rectangular cross sections and highly uniform linewidth at the nanometer scale. To characterize mechanical properties, an atomic force microscope (AFM) based nanoindentation system was employed to investigate three sets of silicon nanolines. The SiNLs had the linewidth ranging from 24 nm to 90 nm, and the aspect ratio (Height/linewidth) from 7 to 18. During indentation, a buckling instability was observed at a critical load, followed by a displacement burst without a load increase, then a fully recoverable deformation upon unloading. For experiments with larger indentation displacements, irrecoverable indentation displacements were observed due to fracture of Si nanolines, with the strain to failure estimated to be from 3.8% to 9.7%. These observations indicated that the buckling behavior of SiNLs depended on the combined effects of load, line geometry, and the friction at contact. This study demonstrated a valuable approach to fabrication of well-defined Si nanoline structures and the application of the nanoindentation method for investigation of their mechanical properties at the nanoscale. For the study of electron transport, a set of nickel monosilicde (NiSi) nanolines with feature size down to 15 nm was fabricated. The linewidth effect on nickel silicide formation has been studied using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) for microstructural analysis. Four point probe electrical measurements showed that the residual resistivity of the NiSi lines at cryogenic temperature increased with decreasing line width, indicating effect of increased electron sidewall scattering with decreased line width. A mean free path for electron transport at room temperature of 5 nm was deduced, which suggests that nickel silicide can be used without degradation of device performance in nanoscale electronics.

In this work, a broad range of analytical methods was applied to the study of the following three materials systems: yttria-stabilised zirconia (YSZ), samarium-doped ceria (SDC) and SDC-supported metal catalysts. YSZ and SDC were studied in the light of their application as solid electrolytes in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells. The SDC-supported metal catalysts were evaluated for application in the reforming of methanol. The conductive properties of YSZ pellets derived from powders of different Y contents and particle size ranges were investigated using Impedance Spectroscopy (IS). Comparative studies of the crystallography (by X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRD)), morphology (by Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopy (SEM, TEM)), chemical composition (by Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS)) and sintering behaviour (dilatometry) were employed in the overall assessment of the conductivity results collected. Detailed studies of three SDC compositions were performed on nanopowders prepared by a low temperature method developed in the Baker group. Modifications led to a simple and reliable method for producing high quality materials with crystallites of ~10 nm diameter. The products were confirmed by XRD and TEM to be single-phase materials. Thermogravimetric analysis, dilatometry, specific surface area determination, elemental analysis and IS were carried out on these SDC powders. The relationships between particle size, chemical composition, sintering conditions and conductivity were studied in detail allowing optimum sintering conditions to be identified and ionic migration and defect association enthalpies to be calculated. Finally, the interesting results obtained for the SDC nanopowders were a driving force for the preparation of SDC-supported metal catalysts. These were prepared by three different methods and characterised in terms of crystallographic phase, specific surface area and bulk and surface chemical composition. Isothermal catalytic tests showed that all catalysts had some activity for the reforming of methanol and that some compositions showed both very high conversions and high selectivities to hydrogen. These catalysts are of interest for further study and possibly for commercial application.

Traditional sources of electrical energy are finite and can produce significant pollution. Solar cells produce clean energy from incident sunlight, and will be an important part of our energy future. A new nanostructured extremely thin absorber solar cell with 0.98% power conversion efficiency and maximum external quantum efficiency of 61% at 650 nm has been fabricated and characterized. This solar cell is composed of a fluorine-doped tin oxide base layer, n-type aluminum doped zinc oxide nanowires, a cadmium selenide absorber layer, poly(3-hexylthiophene) as a p-type layer, and thermally evaporated gold as a back contact. Zinc oxide nanowire electrodeposition has been investigated for different electrical environments, and the role of a zinc oxide thin film layer has been established. Cadmium selenide nanoparticles have been produced and optimized in-house and compared to commercially produced nanoparticles. Argon plasma cleaning has been investigated as a method to improve electronic behavior at cadmium selenide interfaces. The thermal anneal process for cadmium selenide nanoparticles has been studied, and a laser anneal process has been investigated. It has been found that the most efficient solar cells in this study are produced with a zinc oxide thin film, zinc oxide nanowires grown under constant -1V bias between the substrate material and the anode, cadmium selenide nanoparticles purchased commercially and annealed for 24 hours in the presence of cadmium chloride, and high molecular weight poly(3-hexylthiophene) spin-coated in a nitrogen environment.