Thermal and electrical signatures of a hydrodynamic electron fluid in tungsten diphosphide.

In stark contrast to ordinary metals, in materials in which electrons strongly interact with each other or with phonons, electron transport is thought to resemble the flow of viscous fluids. Despite their differences, it is predicted that transport in both conventional and correlated materials is fundamentally limited by the uncertainty principle applied to energy dissipation. Here we report the observation of experimental signatures of hydrodynamic electron flow in the Weyl semimetal tungsten diphosphide. Using thermal and magneto-electric transport experiments, we find indications of the transition from a conventional metallic state at higher temperatures to a hydrodynamic electron fluid below 20 K. The hydrodynamic regime is characterized by a viscosity-induced dependence of the electrical resistivity on the sample width and by a strong violation of the Wiedemann-Franz law. Following the uncertainty principle, both electrical and thermal transport are bound by the quantum indeterminacy, independent of the underlying transport regime.

An open-source platform to study uniaxial stress effects on nanoscale devices.

We present an automatic measurement platform that enables the characterization of nanodevices by electrical transport and optical spectroscopy as a function of the uniaxial stress. We provide insights into and detailed descriptions of the mechanical device, the substrate design and fabrication, and the instrument control software, which is provided under open-source license. The capability of the platform is demonstrated by characterizing the piezo-resistance of an InAs nanowire device using a combination of electrical transport and Raman spectroscopy. The advantages of this measurement platform are highlighted by comparison with state-of-the-art piezo-resistance measurements in InAs nanowires. We envision that the systematic application of this methodology will provide new insights into the physics of nanoscale devices and novel materials for electronics, and thus contribute to the assessment of the potential of strain as a technology booster for nanoscale electronics.

Manipulating Surface States of III-V Nanowires with Uniaxial Stress.

III-V compound semiconductors are indispensable materials for today's high-end electronic and optoelectronic devices and are being explored for next-generation transistor logic and quantum technologies. III-V surfaces and interfaces play the leading role in determining device performance, and therefore, methods to control their electronic properties have been developed. Typically, surface passivation studies demonstrated how to limit the density of surface states. Strain has been widely used to improve the electronic transport properties and optoelectronic properties of III-Vs, but the potential of this technology to modify the surface properties still remains to be explored. Here we show that uniaxial stress induces a shift in the energy of the surface states of III-V nanowires, modifying their electronic properties. We demonstrate this phenomenon by modulating the conductivity of InAs nanowires over 4 orders of magnitude with axial strain ranging between -2.5% in compression and 2.1% in tension. The band bending at the surface of the nanostructure is modified from accumulation to depletion reversibly and reproducibly. We provide evidence of this physical effect using a combination of electrical transport measurement, Raman spectroscopy, band-structure modeling, and technology computer aided design (TCAD) simulations. With this methodology, the deformation potentials for the surface states are quantified. These results reveal that strain technology can be used to shift surface states away from energy ranges in which device performance is negatively affected and represent a novel route to engineer the electronic properties of III-V devices.

Full thermoelectric characterization of InAs nanowires using MEMS heater/sensors.

Precise measurements of a complete set of thermoelectric parameters on a single indium-arsenide nanowire (NW) have been performed using highly sensitive, micro-fabricated sensing devices based on the heater/sensor principle. The devices were fabricated as micro electro-mechanical systems consisting of silicon nitride membranes structured with resistive gold heaters/sensors. Preparation, operation and characterization of the devices are described in detail. Thermal decoupling of the heater/sensor platforms has been optimized reaching thermal conductances as low as 20 nW K(-1) with a measurements sensitivity below 20 nW K(-1). The InAs NWs were characterized in terms of thermal conductance, four-probe electrical conductance and thermopower (Seebeck coefficient), all measured on a single NW. The temperature dependence of the parameters determining the thermoelectric figure-of-merit of an InAs NW was acquired in the range 200-350 K featuring a minor decrease of the thermal conductivity from 2.7 W (m K)(-1) to 2.3 W (m K)(-1).

A vertical microfluidic probe.

Performing localized chemical events on surfaces is critical for numerous applications. We earlier invented the microfluidic probe (MFP), which circumvented the need to process samples in closed microchannels by hydrodynamically confining liquids that performed chemistries on surfaces (Juncker et al. Nat. Mater. 2005, 4, 622-628). Here we present a new and versatile probe, the vertical MFP (vMFP), which operates in the scanning mode while overcoming earlier challenges that limited the practical implementation of the MFP technology. The key component of the vMFP is the head, a microfluidic device (∼1 cm(2) in area) consisting of glass and Si and having microfluidic features fabricated in-plane in the Si layer. The base configuration of the head has two micrometer-size channels that inject/aspirate liquids and terminate at the apex which is ∼1 mm(2). In scanning mode, the head is oriented vertically with the apex parallel to the surface with typical spacing of 1-30 µm. Such length scales and using flow rates from nanoliters/second to microliters/second allow chemical events to be performed on surfaces with tens of picoliter quantities of reagents. Before scanning, the head is clipped on a holder for leak-free, low dead volume interface assembly, providing a simple world-to-chip interface. Surfaces are scanned by mounting the holder on a computer-controlled stage having ∼0.1 µm resolution in positioning. We present detailed steps to fabricate vMFP heads having channels with dimensions from 1 µm × 1 µm to 50 µm × 50 µm for liquid localization over areas of 10-10,000 µm(2). Additionally, advanced design strategies are described to achieve high yield in fabrication and to support a broad range of applications. These include particulate filters, redundant aperture architectures, inclined flow-paths that service apertures, and multiple channels to enable symmetric flow confinement. We also present a method to characterize flow confinement and estimate the distance between the head and the surface by monitoring the evolution of a solution of fluorescently labeled antibody on an activated glass surface. This flow characterization reveals regimes of operation suitable for different surface topographies. We further integrate the dispensing of immersion liquid to the vMFP head for processing surfaces for extended periods of time (∼60 min). The versatility of the vMFP is exemplified by patterning fluorescently labeled proteins, inactivation of cells using sodium hypochlorite, and staining living NIH fibroblasts with Cellomics. These applications are enabled by the compact design of the head, which provides easy access to the surface, simplifies alignment, and enables processing surfaces having dimensions from the micrometer to the centimeter scale and with large topographical variations. We therefore believe that ease-of-operation, reconfigurability, and conservative use of chemicals by the vMFP will lead to its widespread use by microtechnologists and the chemical and biomedical communities.

A cantilever array-based artificial nose

We present quantitative and qualitative detection of analyte vapors using a microfabricated silicon cantilever array. To observe transduction of physical and chemical processes into nanomechanical motion of the cantilever, swelling of a polymer layer on the cantilever is monitored during exposure to the analyte. This motion is tracked by a beam-deflection technique using a time multiplexing scheme. The response pattern of eight cantilevers is analyzed via principal component analysis (PCA) and artificial neural network (ANN) techniques, which facilitates the application of the device as an artificial chemical nose. Analytes tested comprise chemical solvents, a homologous series of primary alcohols, and natural flavors. First differential measurements of surface stress change due to protein adsorption on a cantilever array are shown using a liquid cell.