This Grant Opportunity for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) project brings together academic leadership of Columbia University with the technical capabilities of the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. Two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors are materials just a single atomic layer thick. These materials are of great interest to the electronics community for potential applications in a whole range of logic, memory and sensor applications. In the past few years, new techniques have emerged by which these materials can be grown over several inches, making them easily usable in standard semiconductor processes. However, the quality of these grown materials is at present far inferior to the classic semiconductors used by the electronics industry such as silicon. In this project, the research team will use a four-probe scanning tunneling microscope to characterize the electronic quality of 2D films at the atomic scale. The team will identify the major barriers to electron flow in these materials by directly flowing electron currents through the materials at the nanoscale while simultaneously imaging the regions of high resistance. During the project, specialized laboratory modules for teaching advanced electronics concepts at the undergraduate level will be developed, and undergraduate and graduate students will be trained in the laboratory techniques of direct relevance to the electronics industry. The proposal has significant interactions between the faculty and students from Columbia University and the IBM partner where the academic partners will gain significant experience in an industrial setting. Finally, the industrial partner, IBM, will benefit from the fundamental nature of the academic research joining their perspective and integrative skills.

This project involves interdisciplinary university-industry teams that will conduct the collaborative research in transition-metal dichalcogenides(TMD_-based materials, in which the industry research participant (IBM) provides critical research expertise that is crucial for the success of the project. The large-area growth of 2D materials have made them attractive for industrial applications in a variety of optoelectronic devices, but a key issue is understanding and controlling the transport and contact properties of wafer-scale materials. In this project, scanning tunneling potentiometry will be used to directly measure the nanoscale electronic transport properties of 2D materials including semiconducting TMD and graphene. First, scanning tunneling potentiometry (STP) will be used to measure transport on wafer-scale TMD materials. These measurements will quantify the scattering processes associated with point and line defects in these materials. Second, STP will be used to measure the microscopic band diagram in TMD field effect transistors. These measurements will elucidate the physics of electrical contact to 2D semiconductors. Third, STP will be used to measure current flow patterns in graphene. These measurements will investigate the possibility of viscous hydrodynamic flow in graphene and measure quantitatively the electron viscosity in this regime. Finally, graphene films on silicon carbide substrates will be used to grow single crystal metal films. The quality of these films will be investigated by STP and traditional transport. The use of these films in surface polariton plasmon applications will then be investigated.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Materials Research (DMR)
Type
Standard Grant (Standard)
Application #
1809122
Program Officer
Tom Oder
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2018-09-15
Budget End
2021-08-31
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2018
Total Cost
$365,227
Indirect Cost
Name
Columbia University
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10027