Involved People: G.Maruccio, A.G. Monteduro, S. Rizzato
General description: Nanoscale is the ultimate frontier of miniaturization. In this respect, molecules and nanoparticles are useful building blocks. In the last years, we reported several nanodevices with different architectures. After pioneering work on biomolecular electronics, the focus of our research moved towards nanoparticles and spintronics.
Scientific Strategies/Facilities: A major issue concerns the interconnection of individual building blocks at the nanoscale by means of reproducible and economic methods. For this purpose, we employ electron beam lithography (EBL), focused ion beams or a non- conventional method based on the selective wet-etching and oxidation of an AlGaAs/GaAs quantum well structure for the simultaneous fabrication of large arrays of nanodevices (LINK). In such nanogaps, molecules or nanoparticles are typically positioned by specific immobilization procedures exploiting suitable functional end-groups. Charge and spin transport studies are carried out within superconducting magnets up to 10.5T and down to 10 mK (LINK).
