Kazi Rafsanjani Amin

Effect of ambient on the resistance fluctuations of graphene

In this letter we present the results of systematic experimental investigations of the effect of different chemical environments on the low frequency resistance fluctuations of single layer graphene field effect transistors (SLG-FET). The shape of the power spectral density of noise was found to be determined by the energetics of the adsorption-desorption of molecules from the graphene surface making it the dominant source of noise in these devices. We also demonstrate a method of quantitatively determining the adsorption energies of chemicals on graphene surface based on noise measurements. We find that the magnitude of noise is extremely sensitive to the nature and amount of the chemical species present. We propose that a chemical sensor based on the measurement of low frequency resistance fluctuations of single layer graphene field effect transistor devices will have extremely high sensitivity, very high specificity, high fidelity and fast response times.

High-Performance Sensors Based on Resistance Fluctuations of Single-Layer-Graphene Transistors

One of the most interesting predicted applications of graphene-monolayer-based devices is as high-quality sensors. In this article, we show, through systematic experiments, a chemical vapor sensor based on the measurement of low-frequency resistance fluctuations of single-layer-graphene field-effect-transistor devices. The sensor has extremely high sensitivity, very high specificity, high fidelity, and fast response times. The performance of the device using this scheme of measurement (which uses resistance fluctuations as the detection parameter) is more than 2 orders of magnitude better than a detection scheme in which changes in the average value of the resistance is monitored. We propose a number-density-fluctuation-based model to explain the superior characteristics of a noise-measurement-based detection scheme presented in this article.

Correlated conductance fluctuations close to the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in ultrathin NbN films.

We probe the presence of long-range correlations in phase fluctuations by analyzing the higherorder spectrum of resistance fluctuations in ultra-thin NbN superconducting films. The nonGaussian component of resistance fluctuations is found to be sensitive to film thickness close to the transition, which allows us to distinguish between mean field and Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) type superconducting transitions. The extent of non-Gaussianity was found to be bounded by the BKT and mean field transition temperatures and depend strongly on the roughness and structural inhomogeneity of the superconducting films. Our experiment outlines a novel fluctuation-based kinetic probe in detecting the nature of superconductivity in disordered low-dimensional materials.

Role of different scattering mechanisms on the temperature dependence of transport in graphene

Detailed experimental and theoretical studies of the temperature dependence of the effect of different scattering mechanisms on electrical transport properties of graphene devices are presented. We find that for high mobility devices the transport properties are mainly governed by completely screened short range impurity scattering. On the other hand, for the low mobility devices transport properties are determined by both types of scattering potentials - long range due to ionized impurities and short range due to completely screened charged impurities. The results could be explained in the framework of Boltzmann transport equations involving the two independent scattering mechanisms.

Exotic multifractal conductance fluctuations in graphene

In quantum systems, signatures of multifractality are rare. They have been found only in the multiscaling of eigenfunctions at critical points. Here we demonstrate multifractality in the magnetic field-induced universal conductance fluctuations of the conductance in a quantum condensed matter system, namely, high-mobility single-layer graphene field-effect transistors. This multifractality decreases as the temperature increases or as doping moves the system away from the Dirac point. Our measurements and analysis present evidence for an incipient Anderson-localization near the Dirac point as the most plausible cause for this multifractality. Our experiments suggest that multifractality in the scaling behavior of local eigenfunctions are reflected in macroscopic transport coefficients. We conjecture that an incipient Anderson-localization transition may be the origin of this multifractality. It is possible that multifractality is ubiquitous in transport properties of low-dimensional systems. Indeed, our work suggests that we should look for multifractality in transport in other low-dimensional quantum condensed-matter systems.Multifractality is ubiquitous in classical systems but rare in quantum ones. Here the authors present observations demonstrating that universal conductance fluctuations in high-mobility single-layer graphene field-effect transistors are multifractal and may arise from Anderson-localization.

Manipulation of Optoelectronic Properties and Band Structure Engineering of Ultrathin Te Nanowires by Chemical Adsorption.

Band structure engineering is a powerful technique both for the design of new semiconductor materials and for imparting new functionalities to existing ones. In this article, we present a novel and versatile technique to achieve this by surface adsorption on low dimensional systems. As a specific example, we demonstrate, through detailed experiments and ab initio simulations, the controlled modification of band structure in ultrathin Te nanowires due to NO2 adsorption. Measurements of the temperature dependence of resistivity of single ultrathin Te nanowire field-effect transistor (FET) devices exposed to increasing amounts of NO2 reveal a gradual transition from a semiconducting to a metallic state. Gradual quenching of vibrational Raman modes of Te with increasing concentration of NO2 supports the appearance of a metallic state in NO2 adsorbed Te. Ab initio simulations attribute these observations to the appearance of midgap states in NO2 adsorbed Te nanowires. Our results provide fundamental insights into the effects of ambient on the electronic structures of low-dimensional materials and can be exploited for designing novel chemical sensors.

Effect of ambient on electrical transport properties of ultra-thin Au nanowires

In this letter we present systematic studies of the dynamics of surface adsorption of various chemicals on ultra-thin single crystalline gold nanowires (AuNW) through sensitive resistance fluctuation spectroscopy measurements coupled with ab initio simulations. We show that, contrary to expectations, the adsorption of common chemicals like methanol and acetone has a profound impact on the electrical transport properties of the AuNW. Our measurements and subsequent calculations establish conclusively that in AuNW, semiconductor-like sensitivity to the ambient arises because of changes induced in its local density of states by the surface adsorbed molecules. The extreme sensitivity of the resistance fluctuations of the AuNW to ambient suggests their possible use as solid-state sensors. Published by AIP Publishing.