Project Descriptions

The SUNRISE REU program is committed to offering undergraduate students challenging and unique research opportunities that explore the diverse, interdisciplinary nature of nanotechnology. Students will be fully immersed in the research laboratory, collaborating with their faculty mentors and teams and using state-of-the-art equipment. These projects will fully engage the student and provide the opportunity to see how biomedical, physical and engineering knowledge is applied to produce significant and tangible results. Each project is overseen by one of UCR's faculty members. The faculty have broad experience in multiple disciplines, and are nationally recognized for their contributions and publications in the fields of nanotechnology. They are also exceptionally committed to developing the role of undergraduates in the research process and will be acting as mentors to their assigned students. Students will select their top 3 project choices from the available research initiatives, and every effort will be made to assign participants to one of their three project choices. Below are overviews of the exciting projects to choose from, including the faculty members involved and equipment and techniques used.

Fabrication of Carbon Nanotube–Based Nanoelectronic Devices (R.C. Haddon and V. Parpura).
The student will be involved in the fabrication of carbon nanotube-based devices, which will be tested for use in neurobiology. We propose to make interfaces of nanotubes with neurons, which will enable us to establish a bidirectional electrical communication. Toward that end we have already built a prototype carbon-based detector and also investigated neuronal growth on multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs). We find that MWNTs are a permissive substratum and it appears possible to use chemical modification of carbon NTs to achieve control of neuronal process outgrowth. We would like to explore whether the organization/patterning of MWNTs substratum could affect (i) neuronal growth and neurite outgrowth and (ii) whether we can electrically interface neurons and nanotubes.

Formation of 3-D Hierarchical Structures using Bottom-Up Approach (M. Ozkan).
The summer student will gain experience related to various ways of making 3-D hierarchical structures for opto-electronic device applications by using bottom-up approaches that are currently under investigation. In particular, bioconjugation of carbon nanotubes with other nanoscale particles via single strand DNA as a linker molecule between the particles will be practiced (Figure B-2). The targeted goal of this study is to teach the interns alternative methods of nano-fabrication techniques to manufacture electronic or opto-electronic devices by using a bottom-up approach. The current limitations of micro-fabrication methods using regular silicon technology will be introduced and potential alternative methods will be investigated. The student will interact with graduate students from different disciplines including electrical and chemical engineering and cellular biology. This offers a multidisciplinary training experience.

Nanostructured Fuel Cells (Y. Yan).
The undergraduate student will conduct research in the general area of hydrogen or methanol fuel cells. A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that converts chemical energy directly to electricity. Fuel cells can be used for powering cars, homes, and electronic devises such as a laptop computer. Compared with combustion engines, fuel cells can be more efficient and produce much less/zero pollution. As a battery replacement in a laptop computer, fuel cells can last much longer. Our group (which already includes undergraduates) has been conducting research on fuel cells with the goal to reduce their cost and improve their efficiency and durability through the use of nanotechnology. Cost, efficiency, and durability are the major barriers for the commercialization of fuel cells. Our efforts have been funded by private industry as well as government agencies. We are well equipped for the preparation of catalysts and membranes and their physical and electrochemical characterizations, single cell as well as stack fabrication and testing. Students will have the opportunity to do materials synthesis, characterization using a variety of instrumental techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (IR), UV-vis spectroscopy (UV), gas adsorption, and electrochemistry, and fuel cell device fabrication and testing. Two specific projects are outlined below.

1. Polymer-zeolite nanocomposite membrane (Figure B-3) (Holmberg et al., 2004). The undergraduate student will prepare and characterize acid functionalized zeolite nanoparticles. These nanoparticles will be incorporated in polymer membranes that will be tested for proton conductivity and methanol crossover, and fuel cell performance.

2. Carbon nanotube supported electrocatalysts (Wang et al., 2004). The undergraduate student will prepare carbon nanotubes supported catalysts by our unique solution phase Pt deposition process and will be characterized using techniques mentioned above and a single cell will also be fabricated and tested.

ZnO/ZnMgO Heterojunction Field-Effect Transistor (HFET) (J. Liu).
The student will participate in the fabrication and characterization of the device shown in Figure B-4. We will use single sapphire or original ZnO substrate as the epitaxy wafer. The ZnO and ZnMgO films are grown using Zn and Mg sources and atomic oxygen beam provided by a thermal or radio frequency cracker in our molecular beam epitaxy system. The ZnO and ZnMgO layers serve as the well layer and the barrier layer respectively. They form a heterojunction where a thin layer of electron gas (the 2DEG) can be achieved at the interface between the ZnO and ZnMgO layers. The gate (G), drain (D) and source (S) are designed on the surface of ZnMgO. The voltage applied on the gate modifies the distribution of the 2-dimensional electron gas, and thus modulates the current from the source to the drain. The D, G and S electrodes will be defined by photolithography. The project will involve materials growth/characterization and device fabrication/characterization. The quality of the materials will be characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for the crystallization and interface morphology. Due to the nature of the heteroepitaxy, the dislocation generation and propagation and their influence on device performance will be investigated. The spectra of X-ray photoelectrons spectroscopy (XPS) and auger electrons spectroscopy (AES) will be employed to study the chemical state of the grown films, which is extra important for doping. Carrier transport including mobility of the electrical carrier will also be measured. We will design, fabricate and characterize the proposed ZnO-based HFET devices. Ohmic contact for source and drain, and schottky contact for gate will be investigated. Both DC and RF performances of the devices will be characterized.

Nanoelectronic Materials, Devices, and Circuits (R. Lake).
The student will perform theoretical and numerical modeling of nanoelectronic/molecular-electronic circuits and devices. Circuits and devices of particular interest are heterogeneous structures self-synthesized from carbon nanotubes, DNA, semiconductor nanocrystals, and nanowires. Students can perform theoretical development and analysis of self-synthesized circuits and architectures. At the device level, the goal is to understand basic device operation and optimization. Device and materials modeling is performed with custom quantum device, chemistry, and materials software. Students can also contribute as GUI developers providing user friendly interfaces. The tasks are diverse and interdisciplinary. Students can participate with backgrounds from chemistry, solid-state physics, EE circuits, EE solid state devices, computer engineering, or computer science. See for more information.

High-Power Transistors Made of Gallium-Nitride Semiconductors (A.A. Balandin).
Gallium Nitride (GaN) is a novel semiconductor material, which is used to build ultra high-power transistors, which can operate at very high frequency. One transistor made of this material can replace several conventional transistors. GaN-based field-effect transistors show promises for applications in cells phones, radars, etc. The students participating in this project will have an exposure to this cutting edge technology. They will be involved in computer modeling and experimental characterization of the state-of-the-art GaN-based transistors. The final goals of the project will be improving transistor reliability and its operation in harsh high-temperature environment. The SUNRISE students will gain device simulation skills as well as hands-on experience with device electrical characterization. The students will work in close cooperation with the Nano-Device Laboratory postdoctoral researchers and graduate students.

Engineering Phonons in Nanoscale Devices (A.A. Balandin).
Phonons are quasi-particles, which represent quanta of lattice vibrations in semiconductors and other crystalline materials. Phonons carry heat and limit electrical conductivity of semiconductors. Since phonons determine many properties of semiconductors it is important to understand how phonons propagate through semiconductor structures. Nanotechnology offers a new way of controlling phonon propagation through geometrical confinement of phonons. In this project the SUNRISE students will be exposed to novel phonon engineering concepts, which will be used in nanoscale device design. The students will perform numerical modeling of phonon spectra in semiconductor nanostructurs and participate in micro-Raman spectroscopic investigation of phonon modes. The students will interact with the Nano-Device Laboratory postdoctoral researchers and graduate students working in this field and will gain both theoretical and experimental experience.

Carbon Nanotube-Quantum Dot-Based Nanoelectronic Devices (C. Ozkan).
The student will conduct work on fabricating carbon nanotube-quantum dot conjugate heterostructures (Figure B-5) via various techniques for nanoelectronic device and three-dimensional hierarchical structural applications. The goals of the project will include the fabrication of hetero-conjugate structures with the help of electron-beam lithography and micro/nano fluidic processing, functionalization of carbon nanotubes and quantum dots for the conjugation process, characterization using scanning electron and transmission microscopies, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, electrical measurements for the heterostructures and devices with the help of e-beam written measurement platforms. The student will work very closely with several graduate students conducting doctoral research in the area.

Characterization of Nanomaterials and Bio-Inorganic Interfaces (C. Ozkan).
The student will conduct work on investigating the properties of carbon nanotubes and bio-inorganic interfaces in nanoscale building blocks, which could be used for building nanoscale devices and hierarchical structures fabricated by self-assembly or electron beam lithography. Property investigation will be carried our using near field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) and micro/nano Raman spectroscopy to investigate issues of nano-bio-interface orientation and morphology and interfacial bonding chemistry. An important area of research to be initiated is to characterize the chirality of carbon nanotubes for selective nanoassembly purposes. The intern will work very closely with graduate students working on fabrication and characterization of such structures.

Synthesis and Characterization of Metal Chalcogenide Superlattices Based on Supertetrahedral Clusters (W. Beyermann, P. Feng).
Three-dimensional crystalline porous chalcogenides combining local atomic ordering with long-range three-dimensional ordering represent a series of new materials that may have applications in the area of optoelectronics, fuel cells, photovoltaics and photocatalysis. A series of new materials have been synthesized in Dr. Feng’s lab. In these materials differently sized supertetrahedral clusters are connected together through covalent bonds to form a three-dimensional reticular network. Transition metals have been introduced into the clusters to further tune the chemical and physical properties of these materials (Figure B-6). Two summer students will work in Dr. Feng’s lab to synthesize new supertetrahedral clusters and further tune the composition and properties of these materials. The students will characterize the structures of the materials by using an X-ray diffractometer. Then they will measure the basic physical properties of these systems in Dr. Beyermann’s lab in the Physics Department. The students will use a Magnetic Properties Measurement System and a Physical Properties Measurement System from Quantum Design to measure the magnetic susceptibility, dc and ac transport, and specific heat as a function of temperature and magnetic field. These new materials will allow us to study how electric charge and spin interact as one transits from atomic to macroscopic scales.

Semiconductor Spintronics (R. Kawakami).
Spintronics is a new paradigm for electronics where the electron’s spin is utilized in addition to its charge. The undergraduate student will work closely with graduate students to synthesize novel spintronic materials such as ferromagnetic semiconductors and hybrid organic structures using the atomic-layer deposition technique of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). To investigate the unusual magnetic, optical, and structural properties of these new materials, the undergraduate will gain hands-on experience with one of the following state-of-the-art techniques: magneto-optic Kerr effect, photoluminescence spectroscopy, or scanning tunneling microscopy. The projects may include opportunities to construct new apparatus to enhance the capabilities of these experimental techniques.

Fabrication of Nanowires and Integration into Devices ( N. Myung, W. Chen, A. Mulchandani).
A group of faculty in the Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department focuses on the development of nanoscale devices for sensing minute quantities of pollutants and toxics in air and water. In this project, the undergraduate students will work in the Myung laboratory to fabricate nanowires from gold, nickel, and other materials, using electrodeposition of 1-D metals and metal oxide nanowires with integrated nanomagnets. These can be magnetically assembled and operated in the fashion of a FET sensor. The students will collaborate on the design of sensing circuits using the nanowires, and then will work on fabrication of the sensing arrays. The research opportunities will be attractive to students in chemical engineering, electrical engineering, materials science, and environmental sciences.

Exploring the Dynamics of Molecules at Surfaces: Towards Single-Molecule Nanomachines (Bartels).
The Bartels Lab investigates the dynamics of molecules at surfaces using a combination of scanning tunneling microscopy (a technique capable of imaging individual molecules at surfaces and of generating movies of their behavior) and theoretical modeling. Recent results include the development of a molecule that can walk across a surface in a straight line resembling the motion of the legs of a human being, one of the 25 ‘Top Physics Stories of 2005’ published by the American Institute of Physics. The student will be in charge of investigating the surface behavior of a particular molecule including its placement on the surface, participation in imaging of its behavior, analysis of the resultant movies, and participation in theoretical modeling. In the course of these experiments, the student will learn about vacuum generation/vacuum technology as well as fundamental aspects of Surface Chemistry/Physics. (S)he will be part of an interdisciplinary research group (Bartels is appointed in Chemistry, Elec. Eng., Mech. Eng, and Physics) and receive guidance and help by the graduate students and postdocs of the Bartels lab.

Instruments for weighing the vacuum: (Mohideen)
The student will participate in a experimental research program geared towards building nanoscale instrumentation for measuring ultra small forces such as the Casimir force. The Casimir force results from confining the virtual photons ever present in empty space (vacuum). These virtual photons are predicted by modern theories of physics to exist everywhere in empty space. Measuring it, provides insight into the quantum properties of vacuum and its interaction with boundaries. We have also used the same instruments to detect the interaction of single bio molecules. The latter research done in collaboration with Prof. Parpura has been applied to
neurological proteins to understand their role in brain signal transmission.

Nanoscale Magnetic Devices (Khizroev)
The student will be involved in research with the focus of developing next-generation magnetic data storage and logic devices. Throughout the summer, he or she will get acquainted with numerous experiments with state-of-the-art characterization and fabrication tools, e.g. several types of vibrating sample magnetometry, different modes of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) including atomic force microscopy (AFM), magnetic force microscopy (MFM), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), and others, spinstand measurements to test prototype systems, focused ion beam based fabrication of nanomagnetic devices, and so on. The student will get familiar with the new physics associated with the future implementation of nanomagnetic devices.