Ion Track-Based Nanoelectronics

Abstract

In the last years, concepts have been developed to use etched ion tracks in insulators, such as polymer foils or silicon oxide layers as hosts for nano- and microelectronic structures. Depending on their etching procedure and the thickness of the insulating layer in which they are embedded, such tracks have typical diameters between some 10 nm and a few μm and lengths between some 100 nm and some 10 μm. Due to their extremely high aspect ratios, and due to the possibility to cover very large sample areas, they exceed the potential of nanolithography. In this paper, the strategies of etched ion track manipulation are briefly outlined, that lead to the formation of nanotubules, nanowires, or tubular arrangements of nanoclusters. Examples where nanoelectronic structures are based on single ion tracks, are nanocondensors or sensors for temperature, light, pressure, humidity and/or alcohol vapor. By combination of ion track metallization and conducting track-to-track connections on the foil surface, micromagnets, microtransformers and microcondensors could be formed within polymer foils. Finally, we present our new "TEMPOS" (Tunable Electronic Material with Pores in Oxide on Silicon) concept where nanometric pores, produced by etching of tracks in silicon oxide on silicon wafers, are used as charge extraction (or injection) channels. In comparison with the metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOS-FETs), the TEMPOS structures have a number of additional parameters (such as the track diameter, density, and shape, and the material embedded therein and its spatial distribution) which makes these novel structures much more complex. This eventually leads to higher compactation of the TEMPOS circuits and to unexpected electronic properties. TEMPOS structures can overtake the function of tunable resistors, condensors, photocells, hygrocells, diodes, sensors, and other elements. As an example, some corresponding current/voltage relations and TEMPOS circuits are presented. In this work we concentrate on TEMPOS structures with fullerene and phthalocyanine. Though not yet verified, TEMPOS structures could, in principle, be scaled down to nanometer sizes.

Tempos structures with gold nanoclusters

“…They were characterized as usual [1][2][3][4]. The structure is slightly photosensitive, as can be seen in Figure 6(b).…”

“…Recently, a new electronic element was invented [1] that we denoted as TEMPOS, which stands for tunable electronic material with pores in oxide on semiconductors [2][3][4]. This element consists of a modified dielectric layer on top of a semiconducting substrate.…”

Coupled Chemical Reactions in Dynamic Nanometric Confinement: VIII. Capacitive Discharges in Nuclear Track-Based Biosensing

“…This holds especially for combining the present strategy with TEMPOS structures (i.e. Si/SiO 2 bilayer structures with etched ion tracks in the insulating SiO 2 cover layer) [24][25][26][27]. If these tracks were separated from the Si by a thin insulating membrane, they would also act as electrostatic bottles and thus enable the proposed biosensor strategy.…”

“…Furthermore, the disadvantage of the short track lengths in the TEMPOS structures could be compensated by using larger etched track diameters, to obtain the same or even larger track volumes for accommodating a sufficient number of reaction product ions. In such a case, the individual current pulses initiated by abrupt potential reversals would enter into the conducting channel in the Si below the Si/ SiO 2 interface, and the interaction of the different current pulses stemming from neighbouring tracks placed on slightly different potentials (if additionally applying a potential difference parallel to the SiO 2 surface, as it is done in TEMPOS structures) therein should again lead to collective electronic effects such as negative differential resistances, which are useful for both intrinsic signal amplification and further data processing [24][25][26].…”

The New Molecular Dynamics Approach to Study Radiation Processes

“…Ці результати можуть бути використані в трековій електроніці [5,6]. Властивості трекових пристроїв залежать від форми треків та електронної структури внутрішніх поверхонь треків.…”