Nanomaterial Synthesis & Characterization  

Researchers around the world are learning to make new types of nanomaterials.  Which nanomaterials are interesting?  Which ones show unexpected behaviors?  We never know for sure until we start measuring!

Nanocircuit Behaviors

Nanocircuits continue to surprise us with unexpected behaviors and effects.  These circuits are hard to control, since every molecule matters, and this variability means that experiments don’t necessarily go according to plan, for better or worse...  Often, the biggest risk is that we’re not paying attention.  What new effects are we ignoring?  What have we overlooked?

Single Molecule Circuits

For many of the nanocircuits tested over the last few years, a very small number of atoms have dominated the observed electronic effects.  Maybe it was a magnetic atom nearby, a polar molecule at an interface, or a single carbon atom bonded the wrong way.  Any of these can have huge effects. 
Are we on the verge of designing single-molecule circuitry?

Applications

Nanoelectronic devices show promise for a number of applications.  These include fast, ultrahigh density transistors to compete with silicon; high speed, high power field emitters for microwave applications; and chemically sensitive circuits for chemical and biological sensors.  Will nanocircuits ever have practical commercial uses?  We investigate the physical mechanisms which make these devices work in order to understand nanodevice operation and fundamental limits.

Fabrication & Optimization

Despite progress in making single circuits, nanoscience is a long, long ways from being nanotechnology. 
Could nanocircuits ever be manufactured?  Not without inventing clever ways to build these circuits quickly, cheaply, and reproducibly.  Stay tuned.