No Arabic abstract
Wearable bioelectronics with emphasis on the research and development of advanced person-oriented biomedical devices have attracted immense interest in the last decade. Scientists and clinicians find it essential to utilize skin-worn smart tattoos for on-demand and ambulatory monitoring of an individuals vital signs. Here we report on the development of novel ultrathin platinum-based two-dimensional dichalcogenide (Pt-TMDs) based electronic tattoos as advanced building blocks of future wearable bioelectronics. We made these ultrathin electronic tattoos out of large-scale synthesized platinum diselenide (PtSe2) and platinum ditelluride (PtTe2) layered materials and used them for monitoring human physiological vital signs, such as the electrical activity of the heart and the brain, muscle contractions, eye movements, and temperature. We show that both materials can be used for these applications; yet, PtTe2 was found to be the most suitable choice due to its metallic structure. In terms of sheet resistance, skin-contact, and electrochemical impedance, PtTe2 outperforms state-of-the-art gold and graphene electronic tattoos and performs on par with medical-grade Ag/AgCl gel electrodes. The PtTe2 tattoos show four times lower impedance and almost 100 times lower sheet resistance compared to monolayer graphene tattoos. One of the possible prompt implications of the work is perhaps in the development of advanced human-machine interfaces. To display the application, we built a multi-tattoo system that can easily distinguish eye movement and identify the direction of an individuals sight.
The effect of the AlOx barrier thickness on magnetic and morphological properties of Ta/Co/(AlOx)/Alq3/Si hybrid structures was systematically studied by means of atomic force microscopy, SQUID magnetometry and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). All used techniques pointed out that the barrier thickness of 2 nm is required to obtain a magnetically good cobalt layer on top of Alq3. 59Co NMR measurements revealed that the AlOx barrier gives rise to the formation of an interface layer with defective cobalt favouring growth of bulk cobalt with good magnetic properties.
We present results of the analysis of Brillouin Light Scattering (BLS) measurements of spin waves performed on ultrathin single and multirepeat CoFeB layers with adjacent heavy metal layers. From a detailed study of the spin-wave dispersion relation, we independently extract the Heisenberg exchange interaction (also referred to as symmetric exchange interaction), the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI, also referred to as antisymmetric exchange interaction), and the anisotropy field. We find a large DMI in CoFeB thin films adjacent to a Pt layer and nearly vanishing DMI for CoFeB films adjacent to a W layer. Furthermore, the residual influence of the dipolar interaction on the dispersion relation and on the evaluation of the Heisenberg exchange parameter is demonstrated. In addition, an experimental analysis of the DMI on the spin-wave lifetime is presented. All these parameters play a crucial role in designing skyrmionic or spin-orbitronic devices.
Ferromagnetic semiconductors promise the extension of metal-based spintronics into a material system that combines widely tunable electronic, optical, and magnetic properties. Here, we take steps towards realizing that promise by achieving independent control of electronic doping in the ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As. Samples are comprised of superlattices of 0.5 monolayer (ML) MnAs alternating with 20 ML GaAs and are grown by low temperature (230 C) atomic layer epitaxy (ALE). This allows for the reduction of excess As incorporation and hence the number of charge-compensating As-related defects. We grow a series of samples with either Be or Si doping in the GaAs spacers (p- and n-type dopants, respectively), and verify their structural quality by in situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) and ex situ x-ray diffraction. Magnetization measurements reveal ferromagnetic behavior over the entire doping range, and show no sign of MnAs precipitates. Finally, magneto-transport shows the giant planar Hall effect and strong (20%) resistance fluctuations that may be related to domain wall motion.
We review progress in developing epitaxial graphene as a material for carbon electronics. In particular, improvements in epitaxial graphene growth, interface control and the understanding of multilayer epitaxial graphenes electronic properties are discussed. Although graphene grown on both polar faces of SiC is addressed, our discussions will focus on graphene grown on the (000-1) C-face of SiC. The unique properties of C-face multilayer epitaxial graphene have become apparent. These films behave electronically like a stack of nearly independent graphene sheets rather than a thin Bernal-stacked graphite sample. The origin of multilayer graphenes electronic behavior is its unique highly-ordered stacking of non-Bernal rotated graphene planes. While these rotations do not significantly affect the inter-layer interactions, they do break the stacking symmetry of graphite. It is this broken symmetry that causes each sheet to behave like an isolated graphene plane.
A novel nanomaterial which consists of graphene sheets decorated with silsesquioxane molecoles has been developed. Indeed, aminopropyl-silsesquioxane (POSS-NH2) has been employed to functionalize graphene oxide sheets (GOs). The surface grafting of GOs with POSS-NH2 has been established by infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, while the morphology has been investigated by field emission electron microscopy as well as by atomic force microscopy. The combination of the amino functionalized POSS molecules with GO sheets produces a hybrid silicon/graphite-based nanomaterial, named GRAPOSS, for which the electrical conductivity of reduced GO was restored, thus allowing promising exploitations in several fields such as polymer nanocomposites.