Johan Liu

As feature sizes of devices shrink every year, deposition and etching processes change to be very challenge, especially for sub-7 nm technology node. The acceptable variability of feature size is expected to be several atoms of silicon/germanium in the future. Therefore, Remote Plasma-Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition (RPE-ALD) and Atomic Layer Etching (ALE) change to be more and more important in the semiconductor fabrication. Due to their self-limiting behavior, the atomic-scale fidelity could be realized for both of them in the processes. Compared with traditional Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) and Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) methods, atomic-scale thickness controllability and good conformality can be achieved by RPE-ALD. Unlike conventional plasma etching, atomicscale precision and excellent depth uniformity can be achieved by ALE. The fundamentals and applications of RPE-ALD and ALE have been discussed in this paper. Using the combination of them, atomic-level deposition/etch-back method is also mentioned for achieving high quality ultra-thin films on three dimensional (3D) features.

Due to substantial phonon scattering induced by various structural defects, the in‐plane thermal conductivity (K) of graphene films (GFs) is still inferior to the commercial pyrolytic graphite sheet (PGS). Here, the problem is solved by engineering the structures of GFs in the aspects of grain size, film alignment, and thickness, and interlayer binding energy. The maximum K of GFs reaches to 3200 W m⁻¹ K⁻¹ and outperforms PGS by 60%. The superior K of GFs is strongly related to its large and intact grains, which are over four times larger than the best PGS. The large smooth features about 11 µm and good layer alignment of GFs also benefit on reducing phonon scattering induced by wrinkles/defects. In addition, the presence of substantial turbostratic‐stacking graphene is found up to 37% in thin GFs. The lacking of order in turbostratic‐stacking graphene leads to very weak interlayer binding energy, which can significantly decrease the phonon interfacial scattering. The GFs also demonstrate excellent flexibility and high tensile strength, which is about three times higher than PGS. Therefore, GFs with optimized structures and properties show great potentials in thermal management of form‐factor‐driven electronics and other high‐power‐driven systems.

An important clinical challenge is the development of implant surfaces which have good integration with the surrounding tissues and simultaneously inhibit bacterial colonization thus preventing infection. Recently, graphene oxide (GO) a derivative of graphene, has gained considerable attention in the biomedical field owing to its biocompatibility, surface functionalizability and promising antimicrobial activity. In this study gelatin-functionalized graphene oxide (GOGel) was synthesized by a simple one step modification where GO and GOGel were used to develop surface coatings on nitinol substrates. Mouse osteoblastic cell (MC3T3-E1) functions including cell attachment, proliferation and differentiation were investigated on GO-based coatings. The results indicated that MC3T3-E1 cell functions were significantly enhanced on both GO coated nitinol (GO@NiTi) and GOGel coated nitinol (GOGel@NiTi) compared with the control nitinol without coating (NiTi). Especially, the GOGel@NiTi surface exhibited the best performance for cell adhesion, proliferation and differentiation. Additionally the antimicrobial property of GO-based coatings against E. coli was studied with the evaluation of colony forming units (CFU) counting, live/dead fluorescent staining and scanning electron microscope (SEM). We found that the growth of E. coli was inhibited on GOGel@NiTi and particularly on GO@NiTi. SEM images revealed that the cell membrane of bacteria lost their integrity and live/dead fluorescent images confirmed the low live/dead ratio of E. coli after incubation on GOGel@NiTi and GO@NiTi. We conclude that GO-based coatings on NiTi combine the antimicrobial activity and improved biocompatibility and therefore present a remarkable potential in biomedical implant applications.

The forced transverse vibration of a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) embedded with atomic-size particles was investigated using molecular dynamic simulations. The particles inside the cylindrical cantilever can be trapped near the antinodes or at the vicinity of the SWNT tip. The trapping phenomenon is highly sensitive to the external driving frequencies such that even very small changes in driving frequency can have a strong influence on the probability of the location of the particle inside the SWNT. The trapping effect could potentially be employed to realize the atomic scale control of particle position inside an SWNT via the finite adjustment of the external driving frequency. It may also be suggested that the trapping phenomenon could be utilized to develop high-sensitive mass detectors based on a SWNT resonator.

A methodology for fabricating hierarchical nanostructures by surface-confined synthesis of silver nanoparticles on electrospun polyimide nanofibers is reported. Through surface-confined imide cleavage at the dianhydride domain via immersion in an aqueous KOH solution, potassium polyamate coatings of accurately defined thickness are formed (at a rate of 25 nm h⁻¹). By utilizing the ion-exchange capability of the polyamate resin, silver ions are introduced through immersion in an aqueous AgNO₃ solution. Subsequent reduction of the metal ion species leads to the formation of nanoparticles at the fiber surface. Two modes of reduction, chemical and thermal, are investigated in the report, each leading to distinct morphologies of the nanoparticle coatings. Via thermal reduction, a composite surface layer consisting of monodisperse silver nanoparticles (average diameter 5.2 nm) embedded in a re-imidized polyimide matrix is achieved. In the case of chemical reduction, the reduction process occurs preferentially at the surface of the fiber, leading to the formation of silver nanoparticles anchored at the surface, though not embedded, in a polyamic acid matrix. By regulating the modification depth, control of the particle density on the fiber surface is established. In both reduction approaches, the polyimide nanofiber core exhibits maintained integrity.

A systematic study of the Cu-catalyzed chemical vapor deposition of graphene under extremely low partial pressure is carried out. A carbon precursor supply of just P_CH4 ~ 0.009 mbar during the deposition favors the formation of large-area uniform monolayer graphene verified by Raman spectra. A diluted HNO₃ solution is used to remove Cu before transferring graphene onto SiO₂/Si substrates or carbon grids. The graphene can be made suspended over a ~12 μm distance, indicating its good mechanical properties. Electron transport measurements show the graphene sheet resistance of ~0.6 kΩ/□ at zero gate voltage. The mobilities of electrons and holes are ~1800 cm²/Vs at 4.2 K and ~1200 cm²/Vs at room temperature.