We present here a polysilicon electrothermal microfabricated nanogripper capable of manipulating nanowires and nanotubes in the sub-100 nm range. The nanogripper was fabricated with a mix and match microfabrication process, combining high throughput of photolithography with 10 nm resolution of electron beam lithography. Vertically grown III-V nanowires with a diameter of 70 nm were picked up using the nanogripper, allowing direct transfer of the nanogripper-nanowire ensemble into a transmission electron microscope (TEM) for structural characterization. By refining the end-effectors with focused ion beam milling and subsequently coating these with Au, the nanogripper could lift up laterally aligned single-walled carbon nanotubes from a 1 μm wide trench, while immediately making good electrical contact. One such carbon nanotube was structurally and electrically characterized real-time in TEM, showing a breakdown current density of approximately 0.5 × 10 12 Am −2 . The nanogripper is the smallest microfabricated gripper to date and is the first tool showing repeatable, 3D nanomanipulation of sub-100 nm structures.
We report an approach of using an interlayer of single layer graphene (SLG) for electroluminescence (EL) enhancement of an InGaN/GaN-based near-ultraviolet (NUV) light-emitting diode (LED) with an aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO)-based current spreading layer (CSL). AZO-based CSLs with and without a SLG interlayer were fabricated on the NUV LED epi-wafers. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristic and the EL intensity were measured and compared. We find that the LED without the SLG interlayer can possess a 40% larger series resistance. Furthermore, a 95% EL enhancement was achieved by the employment of the SLG interlayer.
A nano-patterning approach on silicon dioxide (SiO2) material, which could be used for the selective growth of III-V nanowires in photovoltaic applications, is demonstrated. In this process, a silicon (Si) stamp with nanopillar structures was first fabricated using electron-beam lithography (EBL) followed by a dry etching process. Afterwards, the Si stamp was employed in nanoimprint lithography (NIL) assisted with a dry etching process to produce nanoholes on the SiO2 layer. The demonstrated approach has advantages such as a high resolution in nanoscale by EBL and good reproducibility by NIL. In addition, high time efficiency can be realized by one-spot electron-beam exposure in the EBL process combined with NIL for mass production. Furthermore, the one-spot exposure enables the scalability of the nanostructures for different application requirements by tuning only the exposure dose. The size variation of the nanostructures resulting from exposure parameters in EBL, the pattern transfer during nanoimprint in NIL, and subsequent etching processes of SiO2 were also studied quantitatively. By this method, a hexagonal arranged hole array in SiO2 with a hole diameter ranging from 45 to 75 nm and a pitch of 600 nm was demonstrated on a four-inch wafer.
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