Philip G. Collins

Professor Collins received B.S. degrees in physics and electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1990, and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1998.  He was a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, and at the nanotechnology startup company Nanomix, Inc.  He joined the UCI faculty in 2002.

Research Summary

Our research group focuses on the electronic properties of novel, nanometer scale materials.  At the nanometer scale, properties tend to be significantly different than for bulk materials.  These differences can lead to very unusual electronic devices - some of which are useful for new practical applications while others open new doors for investigation of physics at the nanoscale.

For example, nanoscale devices have unusually high ratios of surface area to bulk volume.  Some nanowires, such as the hollow carbon nanotube, are essentially all surface.  Surface scattering contributes to the resistance of all conductors, but in nanowires it can be the dominant process.  This allows us to investigate surface effects with a wholly new precision, extending to the point that we may measure the effect of a single adsorbed molecule on the resistance of a wire.

Recent research indicates these nanoelectronic devices may find a wide range of applications.  These include fast, ultrahigh density transistors to compete with silicon technology, high speed high power field emission devices for microwave applications, and chemically sensitive circuits for chemical or biological sensors.  Our research investigates the physical mechanisms which make these devices work in order to understand their fundamental limits of operation.

This work uses a wide variety of cross-disciplinary techniques.  It requires a combination of materials sythesis,  physical chemistry, semiconductor fabrication technology, electron microscopy, and precision electronic measurements.  Students in the group gain experience with all of these technologies.

“Engineering Carbon Nanotubes and Nanotube Circuits Using Electrical Breakdown”
         Science 292 (2001) p.706.  P.G. Collins, M. Arnold, Ph. Avouris

“1/f Noise in Carbon Nanotubes”
         Applied Physics Lett. 76 (2000) p.894.  P.G. Collins, M.S. Fuhrer, A. Zettl

“Extreme Oxygen Sensitivity of Electronic Properties of Carbon Nanotubes”
         Science 287 (2000) p.1801.  P.G. Collins, K. Bradley, M. Ishigami, A. Zettl

“Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy of C36”  Physical Review Lett. 83 (1999) p.165.  
         P.G. Collins, J. Grossman, J.C. Cote, M. Ishigami, C. Piskotti, S.G. Louie, M.L. Cohen, A. Zettl

“Nanotube nanodevice” 
         Science 278 (1997) p.100.  P.G. Collins, A. Zettl, H. Bando, A. Thess, R.E. Smalley

“A simple and robust electron beam source from carbon nanotubes"
         Applied Physics Lett. 69 (1996) p.1969.  P.G. Collins, A. Zettl