Nanomanufacturing for biological sensing applications

Over the past 10-15 years, there have been tremendous research efforts in the synthesis of nanomaterials with unique electronic properties. Much less work, however, has focused on the incorporation of the nanomaterials into electronic devices. In order for nanomaterials to have a technological impact in electronic devices, nanomanufacturing techniques must be established for the reliable and reproducible creation of devices with nanomaterials as the active component. In this thesis, the incorporation of 3-20 nm diameter ligand coated gold nanoparticles into an electronic device is studied. Ligand coated nanoparticles provide great control over their solubility and electronic properties through the choice of protecting ligand molecule. The use of an isolated nanoparticle in electronic devices presents two major difficulties which are studied in detail in this work. In order to use the electrical properties of a single particle or a few particles, insulating gaps in metallic electrodes must be fabricated with dimensions of 5-50 nm. Several methods including direct patterning with electron beam lithography, physical methods of gap formation, and electrical methods of gap formation are described, studied and evaluated for use in nanomanufacturing.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Barsotti, Robert J., Jr

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Francesco Stellacci.

• Materials Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/38588

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/38588