(SP Wednesday Workshop) Electrically contacting a low number of PbS nanocrystals using graphene

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• Mr Hippolyte Astier, University of Cambridge, Semiconductor Physics Group
• Wednesday 24 June 2015, 14:15-15:15
• Mott Seminar Room (Mott Building Room 531), Cavendish Laboratory.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Teri Bartlett.

Reducing the scale of electronic components to that of nanocrystals or molecules often implies low scalability and complex fabrication. Horizontal architectures generally require costly and sequential processes such as electron beam lithography¹, whilst vertical arrangements using metal evaporation onto molecules or nanocrystals can damage them or cause short circuits². The one-atom-thick material graphene has a number of unique mechanical, electronic and thermodynamic properties that has made it an active field of research since its discovery in 2004³. As efforts are being made to make use of these properties in nanotechnology, its great potential in nanoelectronics and optoelectronics is being revealed and architectures of nanodevices using graphene sheets as electrodes have been proposed[4,5].

We present a novel architecture to investigate electronic transport in colloidal nanocrystals that offers high scalability and flexibility using single-layer graphene as a top electrode. Combining bottom-up and top-down techniques we contacted monolayers of PbS nanocrystals electrically and observed the electron transport in such junctions as a function of potential bias. Preliminary results suggest the occurrence of quantum Coulomb blockade⁶ in the nanocrystals. In this talk I will describe our devices, their fabrication and measurement as well as perspectives for their refinement and development.

[1] D.L. Klein et al., Applied Physics Letters 68, 2574, 1996. [2] H. Haick et al., J. Phys. Chem. C, 111, 2318-2329, 2007. [3] A.K. Geim, Science, 324, 5934, 1530-1534, 2009. [4] J.M. Yuk et al., Nano Lett., 11, 3290–3294, 2011. [5] G. Wang et al., Adv. Matter, 23, 755-760, 2011. [6] U. Meirav and E. B. Foxman, Semicond. Sci. Technol. 11, 255–284, 1996.

This talk is part of the Semiconductor Physics Group Seminars series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• All Cavendish Laboratory Seminars
• All Talks (aka the CURE list)
• Centre for Health Leadership and Enterprise
• Featured lists
• ME Seminar
• Mott Seminar Room (Mott Building Room 531), Cavendish Laboratory
• Neurons, Fake News, DNA and your iPhone: The Mathematics of Information
• School of Physical Sciences
• Semiconductor Physics Group Seminars
• Thin Film Magnetic Talks

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