Fuhrer, Hellerstedt and Edmonds have developed unique-in-the-world techniques to measure the electrical properties, such as resistivity and Hall effect, of a thin film of material during growth by molecular bean epitaxy (MBE) as well as post-growth without removing the sample from vacuum. This allows for studies of exotic materials that may be unstable on removal from vacuum. The current techniques use electrical devices on the millimeter length scale. Yet, many interesting and exotic quantum transport phenomena such as ballistic transport and spin field-effect transistors require devices on the micrometer or even nanometer length scale to be observed. This project will have two aims:
(1) Develop fabrication techniques to miniaturise these devices, whilst still maintaining a clean substrate surface capable of growing high-quality MBE films. This part of the project will utilise the fabrication facilities at the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication such as lithography, metal deposition and atomic-layer deposition, as well as electron beam lithography in Fuhrer’s laboratory.
(2) Carry out MBE film growth and transport measurements on these miniaturised devices using the combined low-temperature scanning tunnelling microscopy and MBE system within the Fuhrer laboratory.
Supervisor: Prof. Michael Fuhrer, Dr Mark Edmonds, Dr Bent Weber, Dr Jack Hellerstedt
See https://www.monash.edu/science/schools/physics/honours/honours-project to apply.