Laboratory for Surface Modification (LSM)

The mission of the Laboratory for Surface Modification is to provide a focus for research in basic and applied studies of high technology surfaces and interfaces.

Activities

IAMD Seminar Schedule, Spring 2008
Spring, 2008
The Spring 2008 schedule of IAMD seminars is now available online. You may also sign up for emailed seminar notifications with the IAMD seminar reminder system.

Highlights
February 18, 2008

The Twenty-Second Annual Symposium of the Laboratory for Surface Modification Honoring Ted Madey and David Langreth

Congratulations to our student prize winners! Graduate students Lauren Klein and Daniel Mastrogiovanni, working with Prof. Rick Garfunkel, won the prize for best student poster: "Germanium nanowires: Growth, characterization, and solar cell applications." Graduate student Jean-Patrick Theisen working with Prof. Bob Bartynski, also received the award for best student poster: "Electronic level alignment of N3 dye and isonictonic acid on TiO2 and ZnO substrates." Each student received a certificate and $150 in prize money.

Click here for Symposium Program (PDF file)

Two 2007 Nobel Prizes go to researchers in Surface and Interface Science

The 2007 Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry were awarded to scientists performing research in two separate areas of surface and interface science, illustrating the vitality and interdisciplinary nature of the field.

Drs. Albert Fert of the Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France and Peter Grünberg of the Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany, won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of the Giant MagnetoResistance (GMR) Effect in bimetallic nanostructures comprised of ferromagnetic (FM) and nonmagnetic (NM) components. Spin-dependent scattering at the FM/NM interface of these nanoscale building blocks is at the heart of the mechanism that causes this phenomenon, which is now the basis for magnetic reading and recording devices in computer and consumer electronics hard drive systems. Please follow this link to the American Physical Society web page for more information. This work is closely related to that performed by Prof. Bartynski and his group in the LSM and the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Prof. Gerhard Ertl of the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin, Germany won the 2007 Nobel prize for Chemistry for his seminal work in the area of heterogeneous catalysis at surfaces. Prof. Ertl's work elaborated on the fundamental processes behind many catalytic reactions that occur in the presence of surfaces, such as those responsible for the catalytic converter in your car, the destruction of the Earth’s ozone layer, as well as many reactions of vital importance in the chemical industry. Please follow this link to the American Chemical Society for more information. Prof. Ertl's work is closely related to the research carried out by Prof. Madey and his group in the LSM, the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.

ATTENTION MATERIALS-RELATED GRADUATE STUDENTS AND POSTDOCS

The LSM, in conjunction with the IAMDN, is initiating a monthly seminar series run by and for Graduate Students and Postdocs in the larger area of the Materials Sciences. On the first Thursday of every month, the usual Surface Science Seminar will be replaced by a mini-symposium comprised of three short (~ 15 minute) talks presented by Graduate Students and Postdocs in Surface and Interface Science, as well as Materials Science in general. More importantly: NO FACULTY ARE PERMITTED TO ATTEND This will be an excellent opportunity for the Students, Postdocs and Research Associates to learn about the work of their colleagues around the campus and present their work in a friendly environment. The presentations will be at the usual LSM Seminar time (Thursday, Noon) in the usual room (Chem 260) and PIZZA AND SODA WILL BE SERVED The first meeting will be Thursday, Oct 4, 2007. The presenters for this first meeting, as well as the titles of their talks, will be announced shortly. For more information, and to receive regular updates for this series, please send e-mail to: kbauer@physics.rutgers.edu

Twenty-First Annual Symposium
Congratulations to our student prize winners at the 21st Annual LSM Symposium. Graduate student Daniel J. Haders, working with Prof. Richard E. Riman, won the prize for best student talk: "Deposition of crystallographically tunable hydroxyapatite films by TEP/EDTA doubly regulated hydrothermal crystallization for biomedical applications."  Graduate student Norman Lapin working with Prof. Yves Chabal, received the award for best student poster: "Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy investigation of the attachment between aminosilane, biotin and streptavidin at silicon oxide surfaces."  Each student received a certificate and $150 in prize money.
Best in Session Award

Congratulations to Graduate student Eric Bersch who received the “Best in Session Award” at the Semiconductor Research Corporation Student Symposium 2006 for his paper entitled “Band Alignment in Alternative CMOS Gate Stacks.” The work was performed under the direction of Prof. Bob Bartynski, Prof. Eric Garfunkel and Dr. Sylvie Rangan

Atomic Layer Deposition of High-κ Dielectrics on Silicon and Germanium Surfaces
To tackle fundamental problems faced by the microelectronic industry, a team of postdocs and students (Y. Wang, M-T. Ho, S. Rivillon, K. Bratland. L. Goncharova) has used a newly constructed atomic layer

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deposition (ALD) reactor equipped with in-situ infrared (IR) spectroscopy (Fig. 1) to study the growth of Al2O3 and HfO2 on a variety of silicon and Ge surfaces (H-, Cl-, Se-terminated, and nitrided). ALD is a chemical vapor technique that makes it possible to deposit films one atomic layer at a time, using sequences of gas pulses.

By using oxide-free starting surfaces, they have been able to control the nature of the interface between Al2O3 and HfO2 films with atomic precision and to uncover the mechanism for the deleterious formation of interfacial SiO2. These and other results using ion scattering techniques and x-ray photoemission are providing the necessary insight to further advance the transistor technology.

Nanotechnology Could Make the Hydrogen Economy a Reality
In a new twist, Rutgers scientists are using nanotechnology in chemical reactions that could provide hydrogen for tomorrow's fuel-cell powered clean energy vehicles. In a paper published in the

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Journal of the American Chemical Society (Vol 127, p. 5014, 2005), researchers at the Laboratory for Surface Modification describe how a finely textured surface of the metal iridium can be used to extract hydrogen from ammonia, then captured and fed to a fuel cell. The metal's unique surface consists of millions of pyramids with facets as tiny as five nanometers (one billionth of a meter) across, onto which ammonia molecules can nestle like matching puzzle pieces. This sets up the molecules to undergo complete and efficient decomposition.

The nanostructured surfaces also have the potential to catalyze chemical reactions for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. A major obstacle to establishing the "hydrogen economy" is the safe and cost-effective storage and transport of hydrogen fuel. The newly discovered process could be the solution to this problem. Handling hydrogen in its native form, as a light and highly flammable gas, poses daunting engineering challenges and would require building a new fuel distribution infrastructure from scratch. By using established processes to bind hydrogen with atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia molecules (which are simply one atom of nitrogen and three atoms of hydrogen), the resulting liquid could be handled much like today's gasoline and diesel fuel. Then using a technique like the one being developed at Rutgers, pure hydrogen could be extracted under the vehicle's hood on demand, as needed by the fuel cell, and the remaining nitrogen harmlessly released back into the atmosphere.