Sanatan Chattopadhyay

Physical and electrochemical characterization of reduced graphene oxide/silver nanocomposites synthesized by adopting a green approach

This study demonstrates the physical and electrochemical characterization of nanocomposites based on reduced graphene oxide (RGO) and silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) synthesized by adopting a green and low cost approach using lactulose as a reducing and stabilizing agent. The RGO/Ag nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, UV-vis absorption spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to obtain clear information about the removal of functional groups and morphology of nanocomposites. XRD results confirmed the formation of a high purity crystal of Ag on RGO. FTIR results established partial reduction of GO to RGO by lactulose. TEM images show that spherical Ag NPs of an average size of 4 nm are uniformly deposited onto RGO sheets and also prevent the restacking of RGO layers. The energy dispersive X-ray spectra (EDX) of RGO/Ag nanocomposites indicate the presence of Ag and graphene. Also, EDX spectra of FESEM show that Ag content increases with the increasing concentration of AgNO3 in RGO/Ag nanocomposites. The surface charge as well as stability of the nanocomposites is examined by measuring the zeta potential while electro-conductivity is measured by potentiostat–galvanostat. The zeta potential and conductivity of RGO/Ag nanocomposites is greatly improved compared to GO and RGO. The electro-conductivity of RGO/Ag nanocomposites indicates that conductivity of RGO/Ag nanocomposite increases with increasing concentration of Ag. The electrochemical result also indicates the presence of a higher amount of ionic functional groups in GO than those in RGO and RGO/Ag nanocomposites. GO indicates the lowest current which gradually increased for RGO and RGO/Ag nanocomposites, respectively.

Comparative Performance Analysis of the Dielectrically Modulated Full- Gate and Short-Gate Tunnel FET-Based Biosensors

In this paper, a short-gate tunneling-field-effect-transistor (SG-TFET) structure has been investigated for the dielectrically modulated biosensing applications in comparison with a full-gate tunneling-field-effect-transistor structure of similar dimensions. This paper explores the underlying physics of these architectures and estimates their comparative sensing performance. The sensing performance has been evaluated for both the charged and charge-neutral biomolecules using extensive device-level simulation, and the effects of the biomolecule dielectric constant and charge density are also studied. In SG-TFET architecture, the reduction of the gate length enhances its drain control over the band-to-band tunneling process and this has been exploited for the detection, resulting to superior drain current sensitivity for biomolecule conjugation. The gate and drain biasing conditions show dominant impact on the sensitivity enhancement in the short-gate biosensors. Therefore, the gate and drain bias are identified as the effective design parameters for the efficiency optimization.

Synthesis of HPMC stabilized nickel nanoparticles and investigation of their magnetic and catalytic properties

Nickel nanoparticles synthesized from NiCl2·6H2O by hydrazine hydrate in mixed solvent of ethanol and water in the presence of hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC) as protective and stabilizing agents. The morphology and sizes of synthesized Ni nanoparticles were studied by field-emission-scanning-electron microscopy (FESEM). Structural properties of nanoparticles were examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The polymer stabilized Ni nanoparticles were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The magnetic measurement showed that the resultant Ni nanoparticles were ferromagnetic. Also, the saturation magnetization (MS), remanent magnetization (MR) and coercivity (MR) were observed to increase with decreasing temperature. The results of magnetic characterization showed that the magnetic properties of the HPMC stabilized Ni nanoparticles are quite different from those of the bared Ni nanoparticles. All the observed magnetic properties essentially reflected the very typical nanoparticle type nature. Consequently, the resulting Ni nanoparticles were found to be highly active and recyclable catalyst for Suzuki coupling reactions.

Synthesis and characterization of graphene from waste dry cell battery for electronic applications

This study demonstrates the electronic applications of graphene synthesized from the graphite electrode of waste dry cell zinc–carbon batteries. Graphite powder [G (R)] is successfully recovered from the graphite electrode of waste batteries by acid treatment and used as starting material for synthesis of graphene oxide (GO) following Hummers method. Finally, reduced graphene oxide (RGO) was obtained from the chemical reduction of GO by hydrazine hydrate. RGO thus obtained was characterized by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, energy dispersive X-ray spectra and transmission electron microscopy to get detailed information about the structure and morphology of the RGO. All the above characterization results confirmed the restoration of sp2 conjugation and removal of functional groups after the reduction of GO and also the sheet like morphology of RGO. The surface charge and stability of RGO in an aqueous medium are examined by measuring zeta potential. An electrochemical study demonstrated that, at different sweep rates, the current is the highest for RGO and lowest for GO and the current increases with an increasing sweep rate for all materials. The loop area of all the samples at the 100 mV s−1 sweep rate is the highest. The galvanostatic charging/discharging measurements have also been performed for both the GO and RGO samples at a current density of 1 mA g−1. Electro-conductivity measurement shows that RGO has higher conductivity than GO due to the restoration of the sp2 structure. The current voltage (I–V) characteristics show a non-linear behavior of GO and the ohmic nature of RGO.

Study and Analysis of the Effects of SiGe Source and Pocket-Doped Channel on Sensing Performance of Dielectrically Modulated Tunnel FET-Based Biosensors

Dielectrically modulated tunnel FET (DMTFET)-based biosensors show higher sensitivity but lower subthreshold current compared with their dielectrically modulated FET counterpart. In this context, the effect of use of silicon-germanium (SiGe) source and n+-pocket-doped channel is investigated with the help of extensive device-level simulations. This paper explores the underlying physics of germanium composition variation in the source region, and doping concentration variation in n+-pocket region, from the perspective of biomolecule conjugation. The effects of source bandgap and tunneling length over the band-to-band tunneling component have been analyzed, and, subsequently, the sensing performance of DMTFETs has been estimated. The results show that SiGe-source DMTFET has significant superiority over n+-pocket DMTFET for attaining higher subthreshold current level while retaining acceptable sensitivity. Such sensitivity-current optimization has been studied for different gate and drain biases, and the suitable biasing range of operation has been indicated. In addition, the relative efficiency of SiGe source and n+-pocket-doped channel has been studied under different biomolecule sample specifications. Finally, the influence of trap-assisted tunneling on DMTFET sensing performance has been analyzed, and the comparative role of SiGe source and n+ pocket has also been indicated in this context.

Estimation of step-by-step induced stress in a sequential process integration of nano-scale SOS MOSFETs with high-k gate dielectrics

The current work proposes a novel technique to incorporate process-induced uni-axial stress for significant mobility boosting in high-performance metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect-transistors. It has been shown that two existing standard techniques, namely, silicon-on-sapphire and high-k gate dielectrics can be combined to develop such technology. Sapphire has very high elastic constant and thermal expansion coefficient, thereby capable of inducing a significant amount of stress which is observed to be biaxial in nature. However, with the incorporation of different materials during process integration, such biaxial stress is gradually changed to uni-axial nature. The high-k gate dielectric plays the key role in converting the biaxial stress to uni-axial. Several high-k gate dielectrics have been studied and titanium oxide (TiO2) is observed to maximize the induced stress and also effective to convert it to uni-axial. A final average longitudinal channel stress of 0.73 GPa has been obtained.

Characterization of epitaxial GaAs MOS capacitors using atomic layer-deposited TiO2/Al2O3 gate stack: study of Ge auto-doping and p-type Zn doping

Electrical and physical properties of a metal-oxide-semiconductor [MOS] structure using atomic layer-deposited high-k dielectrics (TiO2/Al2O3) and epitaxial GaAs [epi-GaAs] grown on Ge(100) substrates have been investigated. The epi-GaAs, either undoped or Zn-doped, was grown using metal-organic chemical vapor deposition method at 620°C to 650°C. The diffusion of Ge atoms into epi-GaAs resulted in auto-doping, and therefore, an n-MOS behavior was observed for undoped and Zn-doped epi-GaAs with the doping concentration up to approximately 1017 cm-3. This is attributed to the diffusion of a significant amount of Ge atoms from the Ge substrate as confirmed by the simulation using SILVACO software and also from the secondary ion mass spectrometry analyses. The Zn-doped epi-GaAs with a doping concentration of approximately 1018 cm-3 converts the epi-GaAs layer into p-type since the Zn doping is relatively higher than the out-diffused Ge concentration. The capacitance-voltage characteristics show similar frequency dispersion and leakage current for n-type and p-type epi-GaAs layers with very low hysteresis voltage (approximately 10 mV).PACS: 81.15.Gh.

Investigating the quasi-oscillatory behavior of electrical parameters with the concentration of D-glucose in aqueous solution

Abstract The impedance, capacitance and conductance of deionized water-glucose polar solution is measured by employing impedance spectroscopy and a quasi-oscillatory nature of variation with glucose content in the solution is observed. Such quasi-oscillatory nature is attributed to the randomly distributed water-water, water-glucose and glucose-glucose dipole interactions at the molecular level in the solution. A relevant analytical model is developed on the basis of such random distribution of the molecular dipoles and the experimental data agree well with those obtained from the theoretical model. The electrical parameters are measured in the frequency range of 100Hz to 4MHz for the volume fractions of glucose with respect to water in the range of 0.1 to 0.5. The impedance, capacitance and conductance are obtained to be in the range of 1.03 kΩ – 112 kΩ, 34.9 pF – 1.66 nF, and 8.95 μS – 52.9 μS respectively for the glucose volume fraction range considered.

Temperature-dependent electrical characteristics of CBD/CBD grown n-ZnO nanowire/p-Si heterojunction diodes

Heterojunction diodes are fabricated using a low-temperature chemical bath deposition of oriented and crystalline ZnO nanowires on a?? ??p-silicon substrate. The electrical transport properties of the heterojunction are investigated at various temperatures by measuring current?voltage (I?V) characteristics in the range of 90?390?K. A thermionic emission (TE) model is used to analyze the transport behavior. The deviation in the experimental value of Richardsons constant for ZnO nanowires is obtained from I?V?T measurement. The temperature dependence of the effective barrier height and ideality factor is attributed to the inhomogeneous barrier height distribution at the n-ZnO NW/p-Si hetero-interface. The TE and barrier inhomogeneity model are simultaneously used to extract the appropriate value of the Richardsons constants in three different temperature regions. Linear fittings for three different temperature regions suggest multiple Gaussian distributions of barrier heights at the junction.

A Novel Photosensitive Tunneling Transistor for Near-Infrared Sensing Applications: Design, Modeling, and Simulation

In this paper, a novel device structure, operating on the principle of band-to-band tunneling, has been designed for near-infrared (1-1.5 μm) multispectral optical sensing applications. A drain current model based on line tunneling approach has been developed to illustrate the device operation. The results of the model are compared with the simulated data for devices with similar dimension and structure, indicating good accuracy of the developed model. Spectral response of the device is studied by estimating the relative values of its transfer-as well as output-characteristics, and also by measuring the variation of threshold voltage, V_T and ON-state current, I_ON. V_T and I_ON are found to be sensitive to wavelength variations at moderate gate doping levels. V_T is found to increase by ~40 mV and I_ON decreases by 35% for a change of illumination wavelength from 1 to 1.5 μm at a gate doping of 1 × 10¹⁸ cm^-3. Peak spectral sensitivity at an illumination intensity of 0.75 W/cm² is found to be 318.38, 2.02 × 10³, and 672.2 corresponding to the change in wavelength from (1-1.2 μm), (1.2-1.45 μm), and (1.45-1.5 μm), respectively.