Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

The proposed equipment is a new high-temperature deposition chamber designed for growing 2D materials (graphene-like materials), which will be integrated with our existing cluster tool located in the SFU Engineering cleanroom for fabricating devices. 2D materials are crystalline monolayer materials, the most famous of which is graphene. Recently, other 2D materials such as monolayer Si (or silicene), Ge (or germanene), P (or phosphorene), and MoS2 have shown extraordinary properties: high measured carrier mobility (200 cm2/Vs), theoretical carrier mobility multiple times larger than their bulk counterpart, tuneable bandgap controlled by applied vertical electric field, high surface-volume ratio, anisotropic reaction to gas adsorption for selective gas detection, flexibility, and paramagnetic and spintronic properties. In the next 5 years, we (PI and co-applicants) will investigate the growth of 2D materials by three different large area growth methods (evaporation, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD)) using the proposed equipment. Simultaneously, we will fabricate 2D material devices for tuneable infrared detectors, gas sensors, biosensors, and energy storage applications. Devices will be tested in the lab facilities of co-applicants. The long-term objective of this research program is to commercialize 2D material devices developed in our lab. Our existing cluster tool is equipped with two PECVD chambers and two sputtering deposition chambers, but none are capable of 2D material growth. The new chamber will be our primary tool for growing 2D materials and existing chambers will be used to deposit films (high-k dielectric, metal layer) used in making a device. The key advantage of a cluster tool system is that 2D materials grown in one chamber can be covered with a high-k dielectric and metal layer deposited in other chambers, which would be a unique capability in Canada. Transferring samples between chambers allows us to avoid impurity contamination and undesirable oxide formation between processes, an important feature for making high-performance devices. The proposed equipment will be open to new and current collaborators after receiving training, or trained personnel will provide nanomaterials to collaborators. This system will enable research programs of multiple personnel (2 PDF, 9 PhD, 10 MASc/MSc, 6 BASc between all PI/co-applicants). Delay on acquiring the equipment will severely limit these programs and hinder new industrial collaborations because without it, we cannot grow the 2D materials which are most compatible with industrial manufacturing: germanene and silicene. The proposed equipment will lead to newly discovered material properties of 2D materials, and enable breakthroughs in device prototype fabrication involving industrial collaborations, which will have a direct impact on the Canadian high tech sector.