Today, it is possible to restore hearing in congenitally deaf children and severely hearing-impaired adults through cochlear implants (CIs). A CI consists of an external sound processor that provides acoustically induced signals to an internal receiver. The receiver feeds information to an electrode array inserted into the fluid-filled cochlea, where it provides direct electrical stimulation to the auditory nerve. Despite its great success, there is still room for improvement, so as to provide the patient with better frequency resolution, pitch information for music and speech perception and overall improved quality of sound.  A better stimulation mode for the auditory nerves by increasing the number of stimulation points is believed to be a part of the solution. Current technology depends on strong electrical pulses to overcome the anatomical gap between neurons and the CI. The spreading of currents limits the number of stimulation points due to signal overlap and crosstalk. Closing the anatomical gap between spiral ganglion neurons and the CI could lower the stimulation thresholds, reduce current spread, and generate a more discrete stimulation of individual neurons. This strategy may depend on the regenerative capacity of auditory neurons, and the ability to attract and guide them to the electrode and bridge the gap. Here, we investigated the potential of cultured human and murine neurons from primary inner ear tissue and human neural progenitor cells to traverse this gap through an extracellular matrix gel. Furthermore, nanoparticles were used as reservoirs for neural attractants and applied to CI electrode surfaces. The nanoparticles retained growth factors, and inner ear neurons showed affinity for the reservoirs in vitro. The potential to obtain a more ordered neural growth on a patterned, electrically conducting nanocrystalline diamond surface was also examined. Successful growth of auditory neurons that attached and grew on the patterned substrate was observed. By combining the patterned diamond surfaces with nanoparticle-based reservoirs and nerve-stimulating gels, a novel, high resolution CI may be created. This strategy could potentially enable the use of hundreds of stimulation points compared to the 12 – 22 used today. This could greatly improve the hearing sensation for many CI recipients.

Diamond is widely known for its extraordinary properties, such as high hardness, thermal conductivity, electron mobility, energy bandgap and durability making it a very attractive material for many applications. Synthetic diamonds retain most of the attractive properties of natural diamond. Among the types of synthetic diamonds, nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) is being developed for electrical, tribological, optical, and biomedical applications. In this research work, NCD films were grown by the pulsed electron beam ablation (PEBA) method at different process conditions such as accelerating voltage, pulse repetition rate, substrate material and temperature. PEBA is a relatively novel deposition technique, which has been developed to provide researchers with a new means of producing films of equal or better quality than more conventional methods such as Pulsed Laser Deposition, Sputtering, and Cathodic Vacuum Arc. The deposition process parameters have been defined by estimating the temperature and pressure of the plasma particles upon impact with the substrates, and comparing the data with the carbon phase diagram. Film thickness was measured by visible reflectance spectroscopy technique and was in the range of 40 – 230 nm. The nature of chemical bonding, namely, the ratio (sp3/sp3+sp2) and nanocrystallinity percentage were estimated using visible Raman spectroscopy technique. The films prepared from the ablation of a highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) target on different substrates consisted mainly of nanocrystalline diamond material in association with a diamond-like carbon phase. The micro-structural properties and surface morphology of the films were studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The mechanical properties of the NCD films were evaluated by nano-indentation.

Nanodiamond is currently one of the most researched materials in the field of regenerative medicine in the study of treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Due to direct interaction of this material with nerve tissue, it needs to be biocompatible with primary neurons. Furthemore, it is desirable for the used material to induce cell adhesion and stimulate the adherent cells to regeneration. This work evaluates the biocompatibility of porous boron-doped diamond layers with the culture of primary neurons. We compared the effect of diamond surface treatment by poly- D-lysine (PDL) coating on the adhesion and prosperity of the primary neuronal culture. We found that the tested nanodiamond layers are biocompatible with the primary neuronal culture. We further conclude that the PDL coating slightly increases the rate of cell adhesion to the surface but on the other hand induces greater adhesion of glial cells than the surface without PDL coating. Key words: nanodiamond, biocompatibility, adhesion, neurons

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has been the main method for synthesizing diamond thin films on hetero substrate materials since 1980s. It has been well acknowledged that both nucleation and growth of diamond on non-diamond surfaces without pre-treatment are very difficult and slow. Furthermore, the weak adhesion between the diamond thin films and substrates has been a major problem for widespread application of diamond thin films. Up to now, Si has been the most frequently used substrate for the study of diamond thin films and various methods, including bias and diamond powder scratching, have been applied to enhance diamond nucleation density. In the present study, nucleation and growth of diamond thin films on Ti3SiC2, a newly developed ceramic-metallic material, using Microwave Plasma Enhanced (MPE) and Hot-Filament (HF) CVD reactors were carried out. In addition, synchrotron-based Near Edge Extended X-Ray Absorption Fine Structure Spectroscopy (NEXAFS) was used to identify the electronic and chemical structures of various NCD films. The results from MPECVD showed that a much higher diamond nucleation density and a much higher film growth rate can be obtained on Ti3SiC2 compared with on Si. Consequently, nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) thin films were feasibly synthesized on Ti3SiC2 under the typical conditions for microcrystalline diamond film synthesis. Furthermore, the diamond films on Ti3SiC2 exhibited better adhesion than on Si. The early stage growth of diamond thin films on Ti3SiC2 by HFCVD indicated that a nanowhisker-like diamond-graphite composite layer, different from diamond nucleation on Si, initially formed on the surface of Ti3SiC2, which resulted in high diamond nucleation density. These results indicate that Ti3SiC2 has great potentials to be used both as substrates and interlayers on metals for diamond thin film deposition and application. This research may greatly expand the tribological application of both Ti3SiC2 and diamond thin films. The results demonstrated that NEXAFS is a reliable and powerful tool to identify NCD films.

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has been the main method for synthesizing diamond thin films on hetero substrate materials since 1980s. It has been well acknowledged that both nucleation and growth of diamond on non-diamond surfaces without pre-treatment are very difficult and slow. Furthermore, the weak adhesion between the diamond thin films and substrates has been a major problem for widespread application of diamond thin films. Up to now, Si has been the most frequently used substrate for the study of diamond thin films and various methods, including bias and diamond powder scratching, have been applied to enhance diamond nucleation density. In the present study, nucleation and growth of diamond thin films on Ti3SiC2, a newly developed ceramic-metallic material, using Microwave Plasma Enhanced (MPE) and Hot-Filament (HF) CVD reactors were carried out. In addition, synchrotron-based Near Edge Extended X-Ray Absorption Fine Structure Spectroscopy (NEXAFS) was used to identify the electronic and chemical structures of various NCD films. The results from MPECVD showed that a much higher diamond nucleation density and a much higher film growth rate can be obtained on Ti3SiC2 compared with on Si. Consequently, nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) thin films were feasibly synthesized on Ti3SiC2 under the typical conditions for microcrystalline diamond film synthesis. Furthermore, the diamond films on Ti3SiC2 exhibited better adhesion than on Si. The early stage growth of diamond thin films on Ti3SiC2 by HFCVD indicated that a nanowhisker-like diamond-graphite composite layer, different from diamond nucleation on Si, initially formed on the surface of Ti3SiC2, which resulted in high diamond nucleation density. These results indicate that Ti3SiC2 has great potentials to be used both as substrates and interlayers on metals for diamond thin film deposition and application. This research may greatly expand the tribological application of both Ti3SiC2 and diamond thin films. The results demonstrated that NEXAFS is a reliable and powerful tool to identify NCD films.

The composition-dependent Curie temperature and bias-dependant dielectric permittivity of Barium Strontium Titanate (BST) makes it very attractive for tunable application in the RF/Microwave regime. In this research work, the performance of BST varactors fabricated on the conventional Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si bottom electrode stack were compared with those fabricated using chemical vapor deposited Nanocrystalline Diamond (NCD) as the diffusion barrier layer instead of SiO2. The varactors fabricated on NCD films displayed much better symmetry in capacitance-voltage behavior and better overall quality factors than varactors fabricated on SiO2. The improvement in performance can be attributed to existence of stable interfaces in the devices fabricated on NCD which reduced the bottom electrode losses at high frequencies. The SiO2 based BST varactors on the other hand displayed better reliability and breakdown fields. The main purpose of this research work is to develop a robust Metal Insulator Metal (MIM) structure to achieve better all round performance of BST varactors. In the second part of this research work, the prospect of developing diamond based layered Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) devices using Ba0.8Sr0.2TiO3 as the piezoelectric layer is investigated. Structural characterization of BST thin films deposited on Si/NCD/Pt and Si/SiO2/Ti/Pt stack were performed using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). Cross-sectional studies on the two stacks were performed using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). X-Ray Mapping (XRM) was then done to ascertain the quality of the interfaces and to check for interdiffusion between layers. MIM structures in the Coplanar Waveguide (CPW) configuration were fabricated using conventional lithography and etching techniques for high frequency measurements. The performance of the fabricated varactors was characterized from 100 MHz to 1 GHz. For the SAW application, structural characterization of Ba0.8Sr0.2TiO3 on Chemical Vapor Deposited (CVD) diamond was done and the deposition procedure was optimized to obtain thick BST films. SAW bandpass filters and resonators were designed wherein the device geometry was varied over a wide range in order to characterize the variation in device performance with geometry. Finally interdigital capacitor structures were fabricated and used for conducting Curie temperature measurements on the deposited BST films in order to determine the operation range of the deposited BST films.

Le diamant de synthèse présente un intérêt croissant pour des applications diverses dans les domaines de l’optique, la catalyse, la biologie ou encore l’électronique. Par dépôt chimique en phase vapeur (CVD) ou par haute pression et haute température (HPHT), il peut être synthétisé sous forme de films. Les particules de diamant sont généralement produites par détonation ou par broyage de diamant massif. Cependant, il n’existe pas actuellement de particules de diamant combinant à la fois sphéricité, monodispersité et qualité cristalline contrôlée. Dans ce contexte, l’objectif de ce travail de thèse est d’élaborer un matériau diamant répondant à ces critères. Pour cela, des cœur-coquilles de diamant nanocristallin sphériques et monodisperses de taille micrométrique ont été synthétisés à partir de billes de silice ensemencées par des nanodiamants. Le revêtement de diamant nanocristallin a été obtenu dans un réacteur CVD spécifique dédié au traitement de poudres. En faisant varier la composition du mélange gazeux, la nature du revêtement a pu être modifiée, du diamant nanocristallin à un matériau hybride composé de nanodiamants enrobés d’une matrice graphitique. Des méthodes de caractérisations complémentaires comme la spectroscopie Raman et le HR-TEM ont permis de déterminer la structure cristalline de ces différents revêtements. Un traitement d’oxydation des cœur-coquilles a permis de les disperser en suspension colloïdale dans l’eau. En utilisant un traitement basique, des sphères creuses ont pu être obtenues et mises en suspension. Des études préliminaires des performances de ces différents matériaux ont ensuite été menées : les propriétés photo-électrocatalytiques pour la réduction du CO2 et la cytotoxicité in vitro pour des applications en biologie. La méthode d’élaboration des cœur-coquilles de diamant mise au point a été enfin étendue à des cœurs magnétiques de maghémite. / Synthetic diamond is now considered in various fields of applications like optics, catalysis, biology or even electronic. Thin films can be synthesized by Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) or by High Pressure/ High Temperature (HPHT), while particles are produced by detonation synthesis or milling of bulk diamond. Nevertheless, among all these diamond materials, there is no material available combining sphericity, monodispersity and crystalline quality. This is the purpose of this thesis work. Core-shell systems made of nanocrystalline diamond shell surrounding a silica core have been synthesized, starting from nanodiamond-seeded silica particles. These particles have been grown in a dedicated home-made CVD reactor, specifically developed to treat powders. Varying the gas composition, the nature of the coating has been tuned, from nanocrystalline diamond to a hybrid material made of nanodiamond particles surrounded by organized graphite. Complementary techniques such as Raman spectroscopy and High Resolution Transmission Electronic Microscopy (HR-TEM) have been used to characterize the crystalline structures. Colloidal suspensions were also obtained with these new diamond core-shells, by oxidation of their surface. Dissolving the silica core, diamond shells were also synthesized, exhibiting stable colloidal properties. Preliminary studies on diamond core-shells performances are also presented in this manuscript: their photocatalytic properties toward CO2 reduction and their in-vitro cytotoxicity considering further biological applications. Finally, the manuscript also reports on the extension of the process to magnetic silica cores for the synthesis of magnetic diamond core-shells.

In the past decade, the use of nanotechnology as a tool to develop and fabricate new structures and devices for biological sensing and energy applications has become increasingly widespread. In this work, a systematic study has been performed on one-dimensional nanomaterials, with a focus on the development of miniaturized devices with a "bottom up" approach. First, members of the nano - carbon family are utilized for biosensing applications; in particular, carbon nanotubes as well as nitrogen - doped and boron - doped nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films. These carbon - based materials possess several unique electrochemical properties over other conductive materials which make them suitable for biosensing applications. Single walled carbon nanotubes were deposited on a glass carbon electrode and modified for the detection of Salmonella DNA hybridization. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was used as the method of detection and a detection limit of 10-9 M was achieved. Nanocrystalline diamond was grown using a microwave enhanced plasma chemical vapor deposition method. The diamond electrodes were doped with either boron or nitrogen to provide substrates and characterization was performed using scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, UV-vis spectroscopy, as well as by electrochemical methods. Modified boron - doped NCD was able to detect Salmonella DNA hybridization via EIS and fluorescent microscopy. The detection limit for these genosensors was found to be 0.4 micrometer complementary DNA. Boron - doped and nitrogen - incorporated nanocrystalline diamond also served as functionalized electrodes for lactic acid detection. It was found that the boron - doped electrodes could detect 0.5 mM lactic acid in a phosphate buffer solution. Second, bismuth antimony nanowires were grown in an anodized alumina template for the fabrication of a thermoelectric cooling device. Bismuth antimony nanowires were chosen due to their high thermoelectric efficiency compared to their bulk material counterpart. The development of a successful anodized template was achieved and EIS was used to diagnose the optimal etch parameters of the barrier oxide layer for nanowire growth. Bismuth antimony nanowires were grown directly on a silicon substrate and a thermoelectric cooling device was fabricated. The nanowires exhibited a thermoelectric efficiency of 0.18 at room temperature.

Tato disertační práce pojednává o plazmonických anténách. Rezonanční vlastnosti plazmonických antén jsou studovány teoreticky i experimentálně. Teoretické výpočty jsou prováděny v programu Lumerical FDTD Solutions užitím numerické metody konečných diferencí v časové doméně. Pro experimentální studium byly antény vyrobeny pomocí elektronové litografie. Rezonanční vlastnosti vyrobených antén jsou studovány fourierovskou infračervenou spektroskopií. Práce se zaměřuje na studium rezonančních vlastností antén vyrobených na vrstvě nanokrystalického diamantu. Dále zkoumá možnost využití antén jako plazmonického senzoru funkcionalizovaného k detekci streptavidinu. Nakonec je představena anténa tvaru písmene V, u které dochází v důsledku porušení symetrie antény ke směrovému rozptylu dopadajícího světla. Tato směrovost se ovšem projevuje jen na vlnových délkách blízkých kvadrupólovému módu antény.

Orientadores: Vitor Baranauskas, Alfredo Carlos Peterlevitz / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Eletrica e de Computação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-12T10:56:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Manne_GustavoAndreMograo_M.pdf: 4900447 bytes, checksum: 96ac39c8d4903a68da74c3db411b33b1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Resumo: Esta tese apresenta um estudo do crescimento e caracterização do diamante nanocristalino crescido por deposição química a partir da fase vapor (diamante CVD), com a introdução de boro durante o crescimento. Nosso objetivo foi de produzir amostras com boas propriedades para emissão de elétrons para o vácuo por efeito do campo elétrico (FEE). As amostras foram caracterizadas por Microscopia Eletrônica de Varredura de Emissão por Campo (FESEM), micro-espectroscopia Raman e emissão de elétrons por campo elétrico. Os resultados destas caracterizações são apresentados e discutidos. / Abstract: This thesis presents a study of the growth and characterization of nano crystalline diamonds produced by the hot-filament chemical vapor deposition (CVD) with the introduction of boron during the growth process. Our objective was to produce samples with good electrical properties for field induced emission of electrons (FEE) to the vacuum. Characterization of the samples by electron microscopy, Raman micro-spectroscopy, and Field Emission measurements are presented and discussed. / Mestrado / Eletrônica, Microeletrônica e Optoeletrônica / Mestre em Engenharia Elétrica