Yasuo Azuma

Single-Electron Transistor Fabricated by Two Bottom-Up Processes of Electroless Au Plating and Chemisorption of Au Nanoparticle

Coulomb diamonds were clearly observed on single-electron transistors (SETs) fabricated by bottom-up processes of electroless plating of Au nanogap electrodes and chemisorption of a Au nanoparticle at 80 K. In the drain current–drain voltage characteristics, Coulomb staircases were modulated by the side gate voltage. Tunneling resistances and source/drain/gate capacitances of the SET were evaluated by fitting the theoretical Coulomb staircase determined on the basis of the full orthodox theory in a double-barrier tunneling junction to the experimental results of Coulomb blockade under the application of side gate voltages. The theoretical results for the Coulomb diamond are in good agreement with the experimental results.

Room-Temperature Coulomb Blockade from Chemically Synthesized Au Nanoparticles Stabilized by Acid–Base Interaction

Sub-2-nm-size basic ligand Au nanoparticles were chemically synthesized and chemisorbed on an acidic self-assembled monolayer/Au(111) substrate by acid–base interaction. Coulomb blockade behaviors with clear Coulomb gaps were observed in current–voltage (I–V) and log I–V curves of the chemisorbed Au nanoparticles by scanning tunneling spectroscopy at room temperature. By fitting the measured I(V) and log I(V) to a Coulomb blockade model, we estimated the charging energy of one electron on the Au nanoparticles to be 10 times greater than the thermal energy k T; the tunneling resistance of the Au core–Au(111) surface was evaluated to be 3.5 GΩ ±15%.

Fabrication and Characterization of Fully Flattened Carbon Nanotubes: A New Graphene Nanoribbon Analogue

Graphene nanoribbons (GNR) are one of the most promising candidates for the fabrication of graphene-based nanoelectronic devices such as high mobility field effect transistors (FET). Here, we report a high-yield fabrication of a high quality another type of GNR analogue, fully flattened carbon nanotubes (flattened CNTs), using solution-phase extraction of inner tubes from large-diameter multi-wall CNTs (MWCNTs). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations show that flattened CNTs have width of typically 20 nm and a barbell-like cross section. Measurements of the low-bias conductance of isolated flattened CNTs as a function of gate voltage shows that the flattened CNTs display ambipolar conduction which is different from those of MWCNTs. The estimated gap based on temperature dependence of conductivity measurements of isolated flattened CNTs is 13.7 meV, which is probably caused by the modified electronic structure due to the flattening.

Robust nanogap electrodes by self-terminating electroless gold plating

Robust nanogap electrodes for nanodevices with a separation of 3.0 ± 1.7 nm were simultaneously mass-produced at a yield of 90% by a combination of electron beam lithography (EBL) and electroless gold plating (EGP). Nanogap electrodes demonstrated their robustness as they maintained their structure unchanged up to temperatures of 170 °C, during the isotropic oxygen plasma ashing removal of the amorphous carbon overlayer resulting from scanning electron microscopy observations, therefore maintaining their surface reactivity for EGP and formation of a self-assembled monolayer. A gold layer grows over the electrode surface during EGP, narrowing the separation between the electrodes; growth stops around 3 nm due to a self-termination phenomenon. This is the main factor in the high yield and reproducibility of the EGP process because it prevents contact between the electrodes. A 90% yield is achieved by also controlling the etching and physisorption of gold clusters, which is accomplished by reduction of triiodide ions and heat treatment of the EGP solution, respectively. A mixed self-assembled monolayer of octanethiol and decanedithiol can be formed at the surface of the nanogap electrodes after the oxygen plasma treatment, and decanethiol-protected Au nanoparticles were chemisorbed between the self-terminated nanogap electrodes via decanedithiol. Chemically assembled single-electron transistors based on the nanogap electrodes exhibit ideal, stable, and reproducible Coulomb diamonds.

Nanoparticle single-electron transistor with metal-bridged top-gate and nanogap electrodes

Au nanoparticle single-electron transistors with metal-bridged top-gates and nanogap electrodes were fabricated using two consecutive electron beam lithography and electroless Au plating steps. The metal-bridged top-gate electrodes were suspended above electroless Au plated nanogap electrodes. Au nanoparticles (5.2 nm in diameter) were chemisorbed between the nanogap electrodes after top-gate fabrication. Clear Coulomb diamonds were observed at 9 K. The gate capacitance Cg of the top-gate electrodes was 99 zF, which is 10 times larger than that of a similar device with only side-gate electrodes.

Scalability of carbon-nanotube-based thin film transistors for flexible electronic devices manufactured using an all roll-to-roll gravure printing system.

To demonstrate that roll-to-roll (R2R) gravure printing is a suitable advanced manufacturing method for flexible thin film transistor (TFT)-based electronic circuits, three different nanomaterial-based inks (silver nanoparticles, BaTiO3 nanoparticles and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs)) were selected and optimized to enable the realization of fully printed SWNT-based TFTs (SWNT-TFTs) on 150-m-long rolls of 0.25-m-wide poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET). SWNT-TFTs with 5 different channel lengths, namely, 30, 80, 130, 180, and 230 μm, were fabricated using a printing speed of 8 m/min. These SWNT-TFTs were characterized, and the obtained electrical parameters were related to major mechanical factors such as web tension, registration accuracy, impression roll pressure and printing speed to determine whether these mechanical factors were the sources of the observed device-to-device variations. By utilizing the electrical parameters from the SWNT-TFTs, a Monte Carlo simulation for a 1-bit adder circuit, as a reference, was conducted to demonstrate that functional circuits with reasonable complexity can indeed be manufactured using R2R gravure printing. The simulation results suggest that circuits with complexity, similar to the full adder circuit, can be printed with a 76% circuit yield if threshold voltage (Vth) variations of less than 30% can be maintained.

Negative differential resistance by molecular resonant tunneling between neutral tribenzosubporphine anchored to a Au(111) surface and tribenzosubporphine cation adsorbed on to a tungsten tip.

Tribenzosubporphyrins are boron(III)-chelated triangular bowl-shaped ring-contracted porphyrins that possess a 14π-aromatic circuit. Their flat molecular shapes and discrete molecular orbital diagrams make them ideal for observation by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Expanding their applications toward single molecule-based devices requires a fundamental knowledge of single molecular conductance between tribenzosubporphines and the STM metal tip. We utilized a tungsten (W) STM tip to investigate the electronic properties of B-(5-mercaptopentoxy)tribenzosubporphine 1 at the single molecular level. B-(5-mercaptopentoxy)-tribenzosubporphine 1 was anchored to the Au(111) surface via reaction with 1-heptanethiol linkers that were preorganized as a self-assembled monolayer (C7S SAM) on the Au(111) substrate. This arrangement ensured that 1 was electronically decoupled from the metal surface. Differential conductance (dI/dV - V) measurements with the bare W tip exhibited a broad gap region of low conductance and three distinct responses at 2.4,-1.3, and -2.1 V. Bias-voltage-dependent STM imaging of 1 at 65 K displayed a triangle shape at -2.1 < V < -1.3 V and a circle shape at V < -2.1 V, reflecting its HOMO and HOMO-1, respectively. In addition, different conductance behaviors were reproducibly observed, which has been ascribed to the adsorption of a tribenzosubporphine-cation on the W tip. When using a W tip doped with preadsorbed tribenzosubporphine-cation, negative differential resistance (NDR) phenomena were clearly observed in a reproducible manner with a peak-to-valley ratio of 2.6, a value confirmed by spatial mapping conductance measurements. Collectively, the observed NDR phenomena have been attributed to effective molecular resonant tunneling between a neutral tribenzosubporphine anchored to the metal surface and a tribenzosubporphine cation adsorbed on a W tip.

One by one single-electron transport in nanomechanical Coulomb blockade shuttle

Transport of electrons through a Au nanodot has been observed under a nanomechanical vibration of a Au nanodot on cantilever that consists of scanning tunneling microscopy probe/vacuum/Au nanodot/cantilever. In the probe tunneling current-distance characteristics, a constant probe current of 2ef has been observed as a plateau region, where f is an eigenfrequency of the cantilever of 86MHz. The authors discuss this quantized tunneling current in relation to one by one single-electron transport per cycle of operation in nanomechanical Coulomb blockade shuttle.

Secondary resonance magnetic force microscopy

In this study, we have developed secondary resonance magnetic force microscopy (SR-MFM) for imaging alternating magnetic fields from a sample surface at the secondary resonant frequency of the magnetic cantilever at the same time as the topographic image. SR-MFM images of alternating magnetic fields diverging from the main pole in a driving perpendicular magnetic recording head are presented, and the divergence and convergence of the fields are discussed. The spatial resolution of SR-MFM is estimated to be 18 nm; this is 2.5 times smaller than that of conventional MFM.

Ideal discrete energy levels in synthesized Au nanoparticles for chemically assembled single-electron transistors.

Ideal discrete energy levels in synthesized Au nanoparticles (6.2 ± 0.8 nm) for a chemically assembled single-electron transistor (SET) are demonstrated at 300 mK. The spatial structure of the double-gate SET is determined by two gate and drain voltages dependence of the stability diagram, and electron transport to the Coulomb box of a single, nearby Coulomb island of Au nanoparticles is detected by the SET. The SET exhibits discrete energy levels, and the excited energy level spacing of the Coulomb island is evaluated as 0.73 meV, which well corresponds to the expected theoretical value. The discrete energy levels show magnetic field evolution with the Zeeman effect and dependence on the odd-even electron number of a single Au nanoparticle.