Nanostructured devices have the potential to serve as the basis for next-generation energy systems that make use of densely packed interfaces and thin films. One approach to making such devices is to build multilayer structures of large area inside the open volume of a nanostructured template. Here, we report the use of atomic layer deposition to fabricate arrays of metal-insulator-metal nanocapacitors in anodic aluminium oxide nanopores. These highly regular arrays have a capacitance per unit planar area of approximately 10 microF cm-2 for 1-microm-thick anodic aluminium oxide and approximately 100 microF cm-2 for 10-microm-thick anodic aluminium oxide, significantly exceeding previously reported values for metal-insulator-metal capacitors in porous templates. It should be possible to scale devices fabricated with this approach to make viable energy storage systems that provide both high energy density and high power density.

Tethering a single lysozyme molecule to a carbon nanotube field effect transistor (FET) produced a stable, high-bandwidth transducer for protein motion. Electronic monitoring during 10-minute periods extended well beyond the limitations of fluorescence techniques to uncover dynamic disorder within a single molecule and establish lysozyme as a processive enzyme. On average, 100 chemical bonds are processively hydrolyzed, at 15-Hertz rates, before lysozyme returns to its nonproductive, 330-Hertz hinge motion. Statistical analysis differentiated single-step hinge closure from enzyme opening, which requires two steps. Seven independent time scales governing lysozyme’s activity we re observed. The pH dependence of lysozyme activity arises not from changes to its processive kinetics but rather from increasing time spent in either nonproductive rapid motions or an inactive, closed conformation.

A systematic study of acoustic emission detection using fiber Bragg grating sensors is presented. In this, we attempt to use the fiber Bragg grating to sense the dynamic strain created by a passing ultrasonic wave signal. Our goal is to see if such a sensor is possible, and if so, what the detection sensitivity and limitations will be. To answer these questions, we carried out several experiments involving the detection of simulated acoustic emission events. In the first experiment, we attach a fiber Bragg grating to the surface of a piezoceramic resonator, which is driven by a signal generator. We were able to detect the resulting surface vibration of the resonator up to 2.1 MHz. In the second experiment, we attach a fiber Bragg grating to the surface of an aluminum plate. We excite an acoustic wave using an ultrasonic transducer located at various positions of the aluminum plate. In this way, we demonstrated that the fiber Bragg Grating sensor is capable of picking up the signal coming from a distance (up to 30 cm) for up to 2.5 MHz. In a third experiment, we use the same fiber Bragg grating on aluminum plate set up, but set up an acoustic signal by either a gentle knock on the plate by a pin, or by breaking a pencil lead on the plate. We were able to detect acoustic emission set up by pencil lead breaking up to a frequency of 30 kHz. Higher frequency components were not detected mainly due to the limitation of available electronic equipment at this time (higher frequency band-pass filters and amplifiers). In all the above-mentioned experiments we use a match Bragg grating to demodulate the detected optical signal and use a dual channel scheme for electronic data acquisition and processing (a signal channel and a reference channel).

Silicene is a two-dimensional structure composed of a buckled hexagonal honeycomb lattice of silicon atoms. Freestanding silicene is yet to be synthesized, but epitaxial silicene monolayers have been directly observed or predicted to exist on a number of supporting substrates. Herein the atomic and electronic structures of fi ve distinct epitaxial silicene morphologies on Ag(111) are examined through the complementary techniques of density functional theory and soft X-ray spectroscopy at the Si L 2,3 edge. Hybridization with the Ag(111) substrate is shown to cause these silicene monolayers to become strongly metallic, and the specifi c electronic interactions that are responsible for this metallic nature are determined. The results imply that epitaxial silicene on Ag(111) does not possess the Dirac cone electronic structure that is characteristic of freestanding silicene and graphene sheets.

Nanotubes are fabricated by atomic layer deposition (ALD) into nanopore arrays created by anodic aluminum oxide (AAO). A transmission electron microscopy (TEM) methodology is developed and applied to quantify the ALD conformality in the nanopores (thickness as a function of depth), and the results are compared to existing models for ALD conformality. ALD HfO2 nanotubes formed in AAO templates are released by dissolution of the Al2O3, transferred to a grid, and imaged by TEM. An algorithm is devised to automate the quantification of nanotube wall thickness as a function of position along the central axis of the nanotube, by using a cylindrical model for the nanotube. Diffusion-limited depletion occurs in the lower portion of the nanotubes and is characterized by a linear slope of decreasing thickness. Experimentally recorded slopes match well with two simple models of ALD within nanopores presented in the literature. The TEM analysis technique provides a method for the rapid analysis of such nanostructures in general, and is also a means to efficiently quantify ALD profiles in nanostructures for a variety of nanodevice applications.