Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Device Fabrication”
University of Wollongong researchers achieved a significant milestone in novel soft-matter transport by demonstrating the transfer of liquid metal from an anode to a cathode without creating a short circuit, defying conventional expectations. The team led by Prof Xiaolin Wang unveils a method where liquid-metal (specifically gallium-based, room temperature liquid metal) anodes can flow towards cathodes with a small electrical …
first published at the University of Wollongong In a ground-breaking discovery, University of Wollongong (UOW) researchers, have reached a new milestone in soft-matter transport. The team, based at the UOW node of the ARC Center of Excellence in Future Low Energy Electronics Technology (FLEET), has successfully demonstrated the transfer of liquid metal from an anode to a cathode without short circuiting, defying …
This month’s ARC infrastructure funding round saw FLEET researchers across five universities on teams awarded additional funding towards research facilities, including significant new imaging resources in South Australia and NSW. Pankaj Sharma, initially a FLEET Research Fellow at UNSW and now a Centre AI at Flinders University (South Australia), will help develop new, state-of-the-art atomic force microscopy (AFM) facilities for the …
Homogenous liquid-metal nanodroplets achieved with high-temperature molten salt Australian researchers put planets in the palm of the hand Liquid metal, planet-like nanodroplets are successfully formed with a new technique developed at RMIT University, Australia. Like our own Planet Earth, the nanodroplets feature an outer ‘crust’, a liquid metal ‘mantle’, and a solid ‘core’. The solid intermetallic core is the key …
First published at RMIT Researchers have created a small device that ‘sees’ and creates memories in a similar way to humans, in a promising step towards one day having applications that can make rapid, complex decisions such as in self-driving cars. The neuromorphic invention is a single chip enabled by a sensing element, doped indium oxide, that is thousands of …
A process has been developed to engineer nanoscale arrays of conducting channels for advanced scalable electronic circuitry Using ion implantation and lithography, investigators created patterns of topological surface edge states on a topological material that made the surface edges conductive while the bulk layer beneath remained an insulator Low energy ion implantation, neutron and X-ray reflectometry techniques at ANSTO supported …
Liquid metals are enigmatic metallic solvents. A new UNSW-led study of metallic crystals growing in a liquid metal solvent finds similarities and differences between liquid-metal solvents and more-familiar crystal-growth environments (such as water or the atmosphere) in which snowflakes or crystals of dissolved substances form. We can dissolve a large amount of sugar in water at high temperatures. But as …
Ultra-thin, liquid-metal-printed oxide can improve performance of your transistor by suppressing vibrational resistance Counterintuitively, this occurs by adding extra phonons (vibrations) into the system This oxide can protect your transistor against further processing Monash University researchers have demonstrated a new, counterintuitive way to protect atomically-thin electronics – adding vibrations, to reduce vibrations. By ‘squeezing’ a thin droplet of liquid gallium, …
2D oxide-based LED encapsulation extending device lifetime FLEET translation funding is supporting the next step in a liquid-metal printing application with significant commercial promise, in a project being led by RMIT PhD candidate Patjaree Aukarasereenont. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) play a crucial role in modern society – from mobile phones to LED billboards and home lighting, LEDs are ubiquitous. There are, …
A UNSW/Flinders University paper published recently in Nature Reviews Materials presents an exciting overview of the emerging field of 2D ferroelectric materials with layered van-der-Waals crystal structures: a novel class of low-dimensional materials that is highly interesting for future nanoelectronics. Future applications include ultra-low energy electronics, high-performance, non-volatile data-storage, high-response optoelectronics, and flexible (energy-harvesting or wearable) electronics. Structurally different from …
Electrical control of exchange bias effect in FePS3-Fe5GeTe2 van der Waals heterostructures via proton intercalations A RMIT-led international collaboration published this week has observed, for the first time, electric gate-controlled exchange-bias effect in van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures, offering a promising platform for future energy-efficient, beyond-CMOS electronics. The exchange-bias (EB) effect, which originates from interlayer magnetic coupling, has played a …
In an Exciton Science/FLEET study, researchers have been able to use trace amounts of liquid platinum to create cheap and highly efficient chemical reactions at low temperatures, opening a pathway to dramatic emissions reductions in crucial industries. When combined with liquid gallium, the amounts of platinum required are small enough to significantly extend the earth’s reserves of this valuable metal, …
“The long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been.” The opening lines of the great Chinese historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms condense its complex and spectacular stories into a coherent pattern, that is, power blocs divide and unite cyclically in turbulent battle years. A good philosophy or theorem has general implications. Now, published …
Liquid-metal machines could wipe out maintenance issues for continuous flow reactors. Metals that are liquid at room temperature, such as gallium and its alloys, are attractive materials due to their unique electrical, thermal and fluidic properties. In a study published today, a research team led by UNSW, Sydney has shown that liquid metals can offer their characteristics to the pharmaceutical and chemical …
Highly sensitive and with a rapid response time, the new X-ray detector is less than 10 nanometres thick and could potentially lead to real-time imaging of cellular biology. Exciton Science and FLEET researchers have used tin mono-sulfide (SnS) nanosheets to create the thinnest X-ray detector ever made, potentially enabling real-time imaging of cellular biology. X-ray detectors are tools that allow …
Spin-momentum locking induced anisotropic magnetoresistance in monolayer WTe2 Determining spin quantization axis, an essential element for fabricating spintronic devices, in 2D topological insulator WTe2 by measuring anisotropic magnetoresistance A RMIT-led, international collaboration published this week has observed large in-plane anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) in a quantum spin Hall insulator and the spin quantization axis of the edge states can be well-defined. …
Innovative epitaxy technique creates a new phase of the popular multiferroic BiFeO3 Stress enhances the properties of a promising material for future technologies. UNSW researchers find a new exotic state of one of the most promising multiferroic materials, with exciting implications for future technologies using these enhanced properties. Combining a careful balance of thin-film strain, distortion, and thickness, the team …
Some alloys are in the liquid state at or near room temperature. These alloys are usually composed of gallium and indium (elements used in low energy lamps), tin and bismuth (materials used in constructions). The ratio and nature of elements in liquid alloys generate extraordinary phenomena on the surface of liquid metals which have been rarely explored to date and …
‘Growing’ electronic components directly onto a semiconductor block avoids messy, noisy oxidation scattering that slows and impedes electronic operation. A UNSW study out this month shows that the resulting high-mobility components are ideal candidates for high-frequency, ultra-small electronic devices, quantum dots, and for qubit applications in quantum computing. Smaller means faster, but also noisier Making computers faster requires ever-smaller transistors, …
Talk to as many people as possible about your future career Stay open to new career directions Hi, I’m Paul Atkin. If we didn’t meet during my time as a FLEET scientist, we may have met more recently in my new life as a sales guy. If we haven’t met yet, I sincerely apologise and strongly suggest we meet for …
A new ARC Research Hub highlighting the role of novel and 2D materials in emerging technologies in fields such as energy storage, purification and printed electronics features FLEET talent amongst its team. The ARC Research Hub for Advanced Manufacturing with 2D Materials (AM2D) will be led by Prof Mainak Majumder (Monash Department of Mechanical Engineering). Two FLEET Chief Investigators are amongst …
Realizing in-situ magnetic phase transition in metallic van-der-Waals magnet Fe5GeTe2 via ultra-high charge doping A RMIT-led international collaboration published this week has achieved record-high electron doping in a layered ferromagnet, causing magnetic phase transition with significant promise for future electronics Control of magnetism (or spin directions) by electric voltage is vital for developing future, low-energy high-speed nano-electronic and spintronic devices, …
Controlling Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) in chiral magnet iron-doped tantalum-sulfide by proton intercalation Magnetic-spin interactions that allow spin-manipulation by electrical control allow potential applications in energy-efficient spintronic devices. An antisymmetric exchange known as Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions (DMI) is vital to form various chiral spin textures, such as skyrmions, and permits their potential application in energy-efficient spintronic devices. Published this week, a Chinese-Australia …
X- ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is used for material characterization, providing quantitative information on the chemical composition of materials by identifying the type of elements that are present (nowadays, with a detection limit in the range of one part per thousand). XPS also allows the identification of the chemical state of the elements – such as the types of bonds …
The Liquid-metals spin-off company Liquid Metal Plus (LM+) initiated in 2020 with FLEET investigators Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh (UNSW) and Dr Torben Daeneke (RMIT), together with Dorna Esrafilzadeh (UNSW), was launched in April 2021. Pushing print on flexible touchscreens Climate rewind: turning CO2 back into coal The company has two areas of focus, with the unifying theme being application of liquid-metal technologies …
Could long-distance interactions between individual molecules forge a new way to compute? Interactions between individual molecules on a metal surface extend for surprisingly large distances – up to several nanometers. A new study, just published, of the changing shape of electronic states induced by these interactions, has potential future application in the use of molecules as individually addressable units. For …
A new type of ultra-efficient, nano-thin material could advance self-powered electronics, wearable technologies and even deliver pacemakers powered by heart beats. The flexible and printable piezoelectric material, which can convert mechanical pressure into electrical energy, has been developed by an Australian research team led by RMIT. It is 100,000 times thinner than a human hair and 800% more efficient than …
“Stripy zebra, spotty leopard, …”. Kids never become bored pinpointing animals based on their unique body patterns. While it is fascinating that living creatures develop distinct patterns on their skin, what may be even more mysterious is their striking similarity to the skin of frozen liquid metals. Pattern formation is a classic example of one of nature’s wonders that scientists …
Moore’s law is an empirical suggestion describing that the number of transistors doubles every few years in integrated circuits (ICs). However, Moore’s law has started to fail as transistors are now so small that the current silicon-based technologies are unable to offer further opportunities for shrinking. One possibility of overcoming Moore’s law is to resort to two-dimensional semiconductors. These two-dimensional materials …
International collaboration reviews future data-storage technology that steps ‘beyond binary’, storing more data than just 0s and 1s Electronic data is being produced at a breath-taking rate. The total amount of data stored in data centres around the globe is of the order of ten zettabytes (a zettabyte is a trillion gigabytes), and we estimate that amount doubles every couple …
