The trend in downscaling of electronic devices and the need to add functionalities such as sensing and nonvolatile memory to existing circuitry dictate that new approaches be developed for device structures and fabrication technologies. Various device technologies are being investigated, including nanotube/nanowire transistors, molecular electronic components and electrical/mechanical sensor platforms. In all of these approaches, two distinct interface problems must be addressed: i) control of the physical interfaces (surfaces/junctions) within the device, in order to achieve suitable and stable device performance and ii) interfacing to external circuitry, to allow integration into existing architectures. This tutorial will focus on the physical interfaces. The talk will include a brief overview of metal/semiconductor interfaces, and will discuss the challenges and opportunities in controlling the barrier heights for Schottkybarriers and contact structures. The presentation will also consider the electrical properties of metal-molecule-semiconductor device structures, in which the molecular layers can modify the effective barrier heights at the semiconductor interface.

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David B. Janes received the B.A. degree in Physics from AugustanaCollege in 1980 and the B.S.E.E., M.S.E.E. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1980, 1981 and 1989, respectively. From 1981 to 1985, he worked as a research scientist at the Research Division of Raytheon Company, where he worked on microwave devices and integrated circuits. His doctoral research focused on the impact of electron traps on the microwave performance of GaAs based signal processing devices (acoustic charge transport devices). Since 1989, he has been at Purdue University, where he is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. From 2001-2003, he was Research Program Coordinator for the Birck Nanotechnology Center. He is currently the Technical Director of the Institute for Nanoelectronics and Computing, a NASA supported center. Since joining the Purdue University faculty, he has been engaged in experimental studies on mesoscopic devices and compound semiconductor microwave devices and characterization of novel semiconductor heterostructures, including structures incorporating lowtemperature grown GaAs. Current projects include development of molecular electronic components, nanowire/nanotube transistors, and chemical sensors.

NCN@Purdue Student Leadership Team
Network for Computational Nanotechnology
The Institute for Nanoelectronics and Computing

If you reference this work in a publication, please cite as follows:

• Janes, David (2005), "Semiconductor Interfaces at the Nanoscale," http://www.nanohub.org/resources/196/.

  BibTex | EndNote

1. carbon nanotubes
2. devices
3. experiments
4. material science
5. molecular electronics
6. nano-transistors
7. nanoelectronics
8. quantum dots
9. tutorial