Development of new bottom-up approaches for the synthesis of functional nanostructured materials with typical feature dimension well below 20 nm. The focus of this research activity is on one side the investigation of fundamental issues related to the self -assembly processes and on the other side the use of these processes to synthesize functional nanostructures.

Block copolymers are investigated to generate nanostructured polymeric materials that are used as a mask for subsequent processing of semiconducting or dielectric materials or by introducing proper functionalities in the macromolecules to use the self assembled polymeric nanostructures as active materials in electronic, optoelectronic, phononic, thermoelectric or photovoltaic. Integration of these self-assembling materials with conventional top-down technologies is explored in order to direct the self-assembly process and register the nanostructures with the underlying substrate. Sequential infiltration synthesis (SIS) is studied to convert the self-assembled polymeric templates into inorganic materials that could be used as hard mask for subsequent pattern transfer process. Development of new self-assembly approaches to control doping of semiconductor at nanoscale is pursued as well. Integrating different self-assembling materials we expect to achieve the goal of deterministic doping, i.e. control over the exact positioning of dopant atoms in semiconductor structures. The fundamental material science issues related to incorporation of dopants into semiconducting nanostructures are investigated to provide information about the thermodynamic and kinetics of doping at nanoscale.

Contact Person: Michele Perego