Nanomaterials are the heart of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Research into nanostructures has been vastly expanding worldwide and their application spreading into numerous branches of science and technology. The incorporation of these materials in commercial products is revolutionising the current technological market. Nanomaterials have gained such enormous universal attention due to their unusual properties, arising from their size in comparison to their bulk counterparts. These nanosized structures have found applications in major devices currently under development including fuel cells, computer chips, memory devices, solar cells and sensors. Due to their aforementioned importance nanostructures of various materials and structures are being actively produced and investigated by numerous research groups around the world. In order to meet the market needs the commercialisation of nanomaterials requires nanomaterial fabrication mechanisms that will employ cheap, easy and low temperature fabrication methods combined with environmentally friendly technologies. This thesis investigates low temperature growth of various one-dimensional nanostructures for their potential application in chemical sensors. It proposes and demonstrates novel materials that can be applied as catalysts for nanomaterial growth. In the present work, zinc oxide (ZnO) and silicon (Si) based nanostructures have been fabricated using low temperature growth methods including hydrothermal growth for ZnO nanowires and plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) technique for Si nanostructures. The structural, optical and electrical properties of these materials have been investigated using various characterisation techniques. After optimising the growth of these nanostructures, gas and biosensors have been fabricated based on Si and ZnO nanostructures respectively in order to demonstrate their potential in chemical sensors. For the first time, in this thesis, a new group of materials have been investigated for the catalytic growth of Si nanostructures. Interesting growth observations have been made and theory of the growth mechanism proposed. The lowest growth temperature in the published literature is also demonstrated for the fabrication of Si nanowires via the PECVD technique. Systematic studies were carried out in order to optimise the growth conditions of ZnO and Si nanostructures for the production of uniformly shaped nanostructures with consistent distribution across the substrate. v The surface structure and distribution of the variously shaped nanostructures has been analysed via scanning electron microscopy. In addition, the crystallinity of these materials has been investigating using Raman and X-ray diffraction spectroscopies and transmission electron microscopy. In addition to the fabrication of these one-dimensional nanomaterials, their potential application in the chemical sensors has been tested via production of a glucose biosensor and an isopropyl alcohol vapour gas sensor based on ZnO and Si nanostructures respectively. The operation of the devices as sensors has been demonstrated and the mechanisms explored.

Siliziumnanodrähte (SiNWs) bieten eine aussichtsreiche Grundlage zur Entwicklung neuartiger nanoelektronischer Bauelemente, wie Feldeffekttransistoren oder Sensoren. Dabei ist insbesondere die Oxidation der Drähte interessant, weil diese weitreichenden Einfluss auf die elektronischen Eigenschaften der Bauelemente hat, die aus den SiNWs gefertigt werden. Die Größe der untersuchten Strukturen erfordert eine atomistische Analyse des Oxidationsprozesses. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird der bisher wenig verstandene Beginn der Oxidation dünner Drähte molekulardynamisch simuliert, wobei als Potential ein reaktives Kraftfeld dient. Dabei wird sich intensiv mit dem Transfer elektrischer Ladungen zwischen Atomen unterschiedlicher Elektronegativitäten während der Simulationen auseinandergesetzt. Desweiteren werden Strukturen, die während der Oxidation von SiNWs der Orientierungen <100> und <110> bei Temperaturen von 300 K und 1200 K entstehen, untersucht. Ein Fokuspunkt dieser Untersuchungen ist die Analyse der Anzahl am Draht adsorbierter Sauerstoffatome während der frühen Oxidationsphase. Darüber hinaus wird die Dichte der entstehenden Strukturen beleuchtet. Dies geschieht mit einer hohen radialen Auflösung und erstmalig während der gesamten Simulation. Hierbei zeigt sich, dass während des Übergangs von kristallinem Silizium zu amorphem Siliziumdioxid zwischen den Siliziumatomen Sauerstoff eingelagert wird, die Kristallstruktur des Siliziums sich zunächst jedoch noch nicht auflöst. Dadurch entsteht ein charakteristisches Muster hoher und niedriger Dichten, das von der ursprünglichen Kristallstruktur des SiNW abhängt.

An early evaluation in terms of circuit design is essential in order to assess the feasibility and practicability aspects for emerging nanotechnologies. Reconfigurable nanotechnologies, such as silicon or germanium nanowire-based reconfigurable field-effect transistors, hold great promise as suitable primitives for enabling multiple functionalities per computational unit. However, contemporary CMOS circuit designs when applied directly with this emerging nanotechnology often result in suboptimal designs. For example, 31% and 71% larger area was obtained for our two exemplary designs. Hence, new approaches delivering tailored circuit designs are needed to truly tap the exciting feature set of these reconfigurable nanotechnologies. To this effect, we propose six functionally enhanced logic gates based on a reconfigurable nanowire technology and employ these logic gates in efficient circuit designs. We carry out a detailed comparative study for a reconfigurable multifunctional circuit, which shows better normalized circuit delay (20.14%), area (32.40%), and activity as the power metric (40%) while exhibiting similar functionality as compared with the CMOS reference design. We further propose a novel design for a 1-bit arithmetic logic unit-based on silicon nanowire reconfigurable FETs with the area, normalized circuit delay, and activity gains of 30%, 34%, and 36%, respectively, as compared with the contemporary CMOS version.

Siliziumnanodrähte (SiNWs) bieten eine aussichtsreiche Grundlage zur Entwicklung neuartiger nanoelektronischer Bauelemente, wie Feldeffekttransistoren oder Sensoren. Dabei ist insbesondere die Oxidation der Drähte interessant, weil diese weitreichenden Einfluss auf die elektronischen Eigenschaften der Bauelemente hat, die aus den SiNWs gefertigt werden. Die Größe der untersuchten Strukturen erfordert eine atomistische Analyse des Oxidationsprozesses. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird der bisher wenig verstandene Beginn der Oxidation dünner Drähte molekulardynamisch simuliert, wobei als Potential ein reaktives Kraftfeld dient. Dabei wird sich intensiv mit dem Transfer elektrischer Ladungen zwischen Atomen unterschiedlicher Elektronegativitäten während der Simulationen auseinandergesetzt. Desweiteren werden Strukturen, die während der Oxidation von SiNWs der Orientierungen <100> und <110> bei Temperaturen von 300 K und 1200 K entstehen, untersucht. Ein Fokuspunkt dieser Untersuchungen ist die Analyse der Anzahl am Draht adsorbierter Sauerstoffatome während der frühen Oxidationsphase. Darüber hinaus wird die Dichte der entstehenden Strukturen beleuchtet. Dies geschieht mit einer hohen radialen Auflösung und erstmalig während der gesamten Simulation. Hierbei zeigt sich, dass während des Übergangs von kristallinem Silizium zu amorphem Siliziumdioxid zwischen den Siliziumatomen Sauerstoff eingelagert wird, die Kristallstruktur des Siliziums sich zunächst jedoch noch nicht auflöst. Dadurch entsteht ein charakteristisches Muster hoher und niedriger Dichten, das von der ursprünglichen Kristallstruktur des SiNW abhängt.:Abbildungsverzeichnis Abkürzungsverzeichnis Symbolverzeichnis 1 Einleitung 2 Einführung zu Siliziumnanodrähten 2.1 Kristallstuktur von Silizium 2.2 Ideale Siliziumnanodrähte 2.3 Herstellung von Siliziumnanodrähten 3 Grundlagen der Molekulardynamik 3.1 Newtonsche Axiome 3.2 Einige grundlegende Begriffe der statistischen Physik 3.3 Molekulardynamik 3.4 Reaktives Kraftfeld 3.5 Methoden zur Beschreibung des Ladungstransfers 3.6 Thermostat und Barostat 3.7 Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator 4 Entwicklung des Modellsystems 4.1 Ausgangsstruktur 4.2 Vorrelaxation 4.3 Ablauf der Oxidation 4.4 Verwendeter ReaxFF-Parametersatz 4.5 Optimierung der Zeitschrittweite 4.5.1 Modellsystem, Relaxation und Oxidation 4.5.2 Festlegung der Zeitschrittweite 4.6 Optimierung der Systemlänge 4.6.1 Modellsystem, Relaxation und Oxidation 4.6.2 Festlegung der Systemlänge 4.7 Einfluss des globalen, instantanen Ladungstransfers auf die Simulation 4.7.1 Festlegung des Einsetzabstands 4.7.2 Vergleich mit Daten von Khalilov et al. 5 Variation von System- und Einsetztemperatur sowie Drahtorientierung 5.1 Variation von System- und Einsetztemperatur 5.1.1 Untersuchung des Oxidationsgrads 5.1.2 Untersuchung von Dichten und Grenzflächenpositionen 5.2 Variation der Drahtorientierung 5.2.1 Untersuchung des Oxidationsgrads 5.2.2 Untersuchung von Dichten und Grenzflächenpositionen 6 Zusammenfassung und Ausblick 6.1 Zusammenfassung 6.2 Ausblick Literaturverzeichnis

Siliziumnanodrähte (SiNWs) bieten aufgrund ihrer exzellenten elektrostatischen Kontrollierbarkeit eine gute Grundlage für die Entwicklung neuartiger Bauelemente, wie rekonfigurierbarer Feldeffekttransistoren (RFETs). Da SiNWs durch die Oxidation gezielt verzerrt werden können und diese Verzerrung die Bandstruktur des Siliziums verändert, bietet der Oxidationsprozess eine Möglichkeit, die Leitungseigenschaften der RFETs zu modulieren und eine symmetrische Transfercharakteristik zu erhalten. Die Untersuchung von SiNWs mit Durchmessern im einstelligen Nanometerbereich bedarf eines atomistischen Ansatzes. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird mit einem reaktiven Kraftfeld die initiale Phase der Oxidation dünner SiNWs molekulardynamisch simuliert. Gegenstand der Untersuchungen sind die Temperaturabhängigkeit der Oxidation von <110>-SiNWs mit Anfangsradien von 10.2 Å sowie das Oxidationsverhalten von <110>- und <100>-SiNWs mit Anfangsradien von 5.1 Å. Dabei wird neben dem Sauerstoffanteil im Simulationssystem und der radial aufgelösten Dichte auch das radial aufgelöste Verhältnis zwischen Sauerstoff- und Siliziumatomen während der gesamten Simulationsdauer untersucht und ein Zusammenhang zur Dichte festgestellt. Darüber hinaus wird bei 300 K erstmals eine Analyse der Verzerrungsentwicklung während der initialen Oxidationsphase durchgeführt, bei der sich sowohl für <110>-SiNWs als auch für <100>-SiNWs eine tensile Verzerrung im unoxidierten Drahtkern einstellt. Wie eine Analyse der partiellen radialen Verteilungsfunktion zeigt, kommt es zu dieser Verzerrung, weil während der Oxidation die Grundstruktur des Siliziums im Oxid erhalten bleibt, durch die Einlagerung des Sauerstoffs allerdings der Bindungsabstand erhöht wird. Dieser erhöhte Bindungsabstand wird durch Bindungen zu Siliziumatomen im Oxid auch Siliziumatomen im unoxidierten Kern aufgezwungen.:Inhaltsverzeichnis Abbildungsverzeichnis Tabellenverzeichnis Abkürzungsverzeichnis Symbolverzeichnis 1. Einleitung 2. Theoretische Grundlagen 2.1. Molekulardynamik 2.2. Siliziumnanodrähte 2.3. Verzerrung und Verspannung 3. Modellsystem 3.1. Ausgangsstruktur 3.2. Vorrelaxation 3.3. Ablauf der Oxidation 4. Untersuchungsmethoden 4.1. Sauerstofffluenz, Oxidationsgrad und Oxidationsrate 4.2. Massendichte und Siliziumanteil 4.3. Radiale Verteilungsfunktion 4.4. Verzerrung 4.4.1. <110>-Draht 4.4.2. <100>-Draht 5. Ergebnisse und Diskussion 5.1. Festlegung des Einsetzintervalls 5.2. Temperaturvariation 5.2.1. Oxidationsgrad 5.2.2. Siliziumanteil 5.2.3. Massendichte 5.2.4. Radiale Verteilungsfunktion 5.3. Radius- und Orientierungsvariation 5.4. Verzerrung 6. Zusammenfassung und Ausblick 6.1. Zusammenfassung 6.2. Ausblick A. Festlegung des Einsetzintervalls Literaturverzeichnis

Technology scaling beyond Moore’s law demands cutting-edge solutions of the gate length scaling in sub-10 nm regime for low power high speed operations. Recently SOI technology has received considerable attention, however manufacturable solutions in sub-10 nm technologies are not yet known for future nanoelectronics. Therefore, to continue scalinginsub-10 nm region, new one(1D) and two dimensional(2D) “nano-materials” and engineering are expected to keep its pace. However, significant challenges must be overcome for nano-material properties in carrier transport to be useful in future silicon nanotechnology. Thus, it is very important to understand and modulate their electronic band structure and transport properties for low power nanoelectronics applications. This thesis tries to provide solutions for some problems in this area. In recent times, one dimensional Silicon nanowire has emerged as a building block for the next generation nano-electronic devices as it can accommodate multiple gate transistor architecture with excellent electrostatic integrity. However as the experimental study of various energy band parameters at the nanoscale regime is extremely challenging, usually one relies on the atomic level simulations, the results of which are at par with the experimental observations. Two such parameters are the band gap and effective mass, which are of pioneer importance for the understanding of the current transport mechanism. Although there exists a large number of empirical relations of the band gap in relaxed Silicon nanowire, however there is a growing demand for the development of a physics based analytical model to standardize different energy band parameters which particularly demands its application in TCAD software for predicting different electrical characteristics of novel devices and its strained counterpart to increase the device characteristics significantly without changing the device architecture. In the first part of this work reports the analytical modeling of energy band gap and electron transport effective mass of relaxed and strained Silicon nanowires in various crystallographic directions for future nanoelectronics. The technology scaling of gate length in beyond Moore’s law devices also demands the SOI body thickness, TSi0 which is essentially very challenging task in nano-device engineering. To overcome this circumstance, two dimensional crystals in atomically thin layered materials have found great attention for future nanolectronics device applications. Graphene, one layer of Graphite, is such 2D materials which have found potentiality in high speed nanoelectronics applications due to its several unique electronic properties. However, the zero band gap in pure Graphene makes it limited in switching device or transistor applications. Thus, opening and tailoring a band gap has become a highly pursued topic in recent graphene research. The second part of this work reports atomistic simulation based real and complex band structure properties Graphene-Boron nitride heterobilayer and Boron Nitride embedded Graphene nanoribbons which can improve the grapheme and its nanoribbon band structure properties without changing their originality. This part also reports the direct band-to-band tunneling phenomena through the complex band structures and their applications in tunnel field effect transistors(TFETs) which has emerged as a strong candidate for next generation low-stand by power(LSTP) applications due to its sub-60mV/dec Sub threshold slope(SS). As the direct band-to-band tunneling(BTBT) is improbable in Silicon(either its bulk or nanowire form), it is difficult to achieve superior TFET characteristics(i.e., very low SS and high ON cur-rent) from the Silicon TFETs. Whereas, it is explored that much high ON current and very low subthreshold slope in hybrid Graphene based TFET characteristics open a new prospect in future TFETs. The investigations on ultrathin body materials also call for a need to explore new 2D materials with finite band gap and their various nanostructures for future nanoelectronic applications in order to replace conventional Silicon. In the third part of this report, we have investigated the electronic and dielectric properties of semiconducting layered Transition metal dichalcogenide materials (MX2)(M=Mo, W;X =S, Se, Te) which has recently emerged as a promising alternative to Si as channel materials for CMOS devices. Five layered MX2 materials(exceptWTe2)in their 2D sheet and 1D nanoribbon forms are considered to study the real and imaginary band structure of thoseMX2 materials by atomistic simulations. Studying the complex dispersion properties, it is shown that all the five MX2 support direct BTBT in their monolayer sheet forms and offer an average ON current and subthresholdslopeof150 A/mand4 mV/dec, respectively. However, onlytheMoTe2 support direct BTBT in its nanoribbon form, whereas the direct BTBT possibility in MoS2 and MoSe2 depends on the number of layers or applied uniaxial strain. WX2 nanoribbons are shown to be non-suitable for efficient TFET operation. Reasonably high tunneling current in these MX2 shows that these can take advantage over conventional Silicon in future tunnel field effect transistor applications.

Technology scaling beyond Moore’s law demands cutting-edge solutions of the gate length scaling in sub-10 nm regime for low power high speed operations. Recently SOI technology has received considerable attention, however manufacturable solutions in sub-10 nm technologies are not yet known for future nanoelectronics. Therefore, to continue scalinginsub-10 nm region, new one(1D) and two dimensional(2D) “nano-materials” and engineering are expected to keep its pace. However, significant challenges must be overcome for nano-material properties in carrier transport to be useful in future silicon nanotechnology. Thus, it is very important to understand and modulate their electronic band structure and transport properties for low power nanoelectronics applications. This thesis tries to provide solutions for some problems in this area. In recent times, one dimensional Silicon nanowire has emerged as a building block for the next generation nano-electronic devices as it can accommodate multiple gate transistor architecture with excellent electrostatic integrity. However as the experimental study of various energy band parameters at the nanoscale regime is extremely challenging, usually one relies on the atomic level simulations, the results of which are at par with the experimental observations. Two such parameters are the band gap and effective mass, which are of pioneer importance for the understanding of the current transport mechanism. Although there exists a large number of empirical relations of the band gap in relaxed Silicon nanowire, however there is a growing demand for the development of a physics based analytical model to standardize different energy band parameters which particularly demands its application in TCAD software for predicting different electrical characteristics of novel devices and its strained counterpart to increase the device characteristics significantly without changing the device architecture. In the first part of this work reports the analytical modeling of energy band gap and electron transport effective mass of relaxed and strained Silicon nanowires in various crystallographic directions for future nanoelectronics. The technology scaling of gate length in beyond Moore’s law devices also demands the SOI body thickness, TSi0 which is essentially very challenging task in nano-device engineering. To overcome this circumstance, two dimensional crystals in atomically thin layered materials have found great attention for future nanolectronics device applications. Graphene, one layer of Graphite, is such 2D materials which have found potentiality in high speed nanoelectronics applications due to its several unique electronic properties. However, the zero band gap in pure Graphene makes it limited in switching device or transistor applications. Thus, opening and tailoring a band gap has become a highly pursued topic in recent graphene research. The second part of this work reports atomistic simulation based real and complex band structure properties Graphene-Boron nitride heterobilayer and Boron Nitride embedded Graphene nanoribbons which can improve the grapheme and its nanoribbon band structure properties without changing their originality. This part also reports the direct band-to-band tunneling phenomena through the complex band structures and their applications in tunnel field effect transistors(TFETs) which has emerged as a strong candidate for next generation low-stand by power(LSTP) applications due to its sub-60mV/dec Sub threshold slope(SS). As the direct band-to-band tunneling(BTBT) is improbable in Silicon(either its bulk or nanowire form), it is difficult to achieve superior TFET characteristics(i.e., very low SS and high ON cur-rent) from the Silicon TFETs. Whereas, it is explored that much high ON current and very low subthreshold slope in hybrid Graphene based TFET characteristics open a new prospect in future TFETs. The investigations on ultrathin body materials also call for a need to explore new 2D materials with finite band gap and their various nanostructures for future nanoelectronic applications in order to replace conventional Silicon. In the third part of this report, we have investigated the electronic and dielectric properties of semiconducting layered Transition metal dichalcogenide materials (MX2)(M=Mo, W;X =S, Se, Te) which has recently emerged as a promising alternative to Si as channel materials for CMOS devices. Five layered MX2 materials(exceptWTe2)in their 2D sheet and 1D nanoribbon forms are considered to study the real and imaginary band structure of thoseMX2 materials by atomistic simulations. Studying the complex dispersion properties, it is shown that all the five MX2 support direct BTBT in their monolayer sheet forms and offer an average ON current and subthresholdslopeof150 A/mand4 mV/dec, respectively. However, onlytheMoTe2 support direct BTBT in its nanoribbon form, whereas the direct BTBT possibility in MoS2 and MoSe2 depends on the number of layers or applied uniaxial strain. WX2 nanoribbons are shown to be non-suitable for efficient TFET operation. Reasonably high tunneling current in these MX2 shows that these can take advantage over conventional Silicon in future tunnel field effect transistor applications.