Date

2014

Author

Kayacan İlday, Serim

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The most important problem limiting the impact of nanotechnology is probably the difficulty in effectively linking nanoscale materials and processes to the macroscopic world. Topology and material properties are intricately coupled and conditions that pertain to atomic, microscopic and macroscopic scales are often seemingly mutually exclusive. This thesis introduces a state-of-the-art nanostructure that hierarchically builds itself from the atomic to the microscopic scales, which can connect to the macroscopic world without detracting from its nanoscale properties. The three dimensional anisotropic random network of silicon quantum dots is largely isotropic in the atomic scale but it grows to become anisotropic in the microscopic scale. We show that quantum confinement is preserved and the current flows through the network without relying on inefficient tunnelling currents. Former pertains to the atomic scale and latter manifesting at the microscale; these two scale-dependent features were thought to be mutually exclusive prior to this thesis. The structure is self-assembled from a silicon-rich silicon oxide thin film. Microscale self-assembly is kinetically driven under nonequilibrium conditions established by magnetron sputter deposition and relies on control of surface diffusion through a surface temperature gradient. Atomic scale self-assembly is chemically driven under local nonequilibrium conditions provided by fast stochastic deposition and relies on control of phase separation by stabilizing nominally unstable suboxides. We show that our fabrication methodology is inherently modular, material-independent, and is not affected substantially by the initial conditions, as self-assembly under nonequilibrium conditions and nonlinear dynamics sweeps aside a large number of factors that influence the details of thin-film growth, but provides simple a couple of “rules” with clearly identifiable corresponding experimental conditions to determine the final morphology.

Subject Keywords

Silicon., Anisotropy., Percolation., Nanostructures., Nanotechnology.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12618017/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/23924

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis