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ME Welland

Publications and source records attributed to ME Welland.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Room temperature magnetic quantum cellular automata

All computers process information electronically. A processing method based on magnetism is reported here, in which networks of interacting submicrometer magnetic dots are used to perform logic operations and propagate information at room temperature. The logic states are signaled by the magnetization direction of the single-domain magnetic dots; the dots couple to their nearest neighbors through magnetostatic interactions. Magnetic solitons carry information through the networks, and an applied oscillating magnetic field feeds energy into the system and serves as a clock. These networks offer a several thousandfold increase in integration density and a hundredfold reduction in power dissipation over current microelectronic technology.

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Analysis of failure mechanisms in electrically stressed gold nanowires

An analysis of polycrystalline Au thin-film interconnects of widths ranging from 850 to 25 nm, and lengths ranging from 1 microm to 20 nm which have been electrically stressed to the point of failure is presented. A new method for testing failure of interconnects is proposed, based on a quantity we call the failure current density. The mean time to failure for fixed current density and also the failure current density are seen to decrease with decreasing wire width contrary to expectations. The failure current density for a given wire width increases as the length decreases. An analysis of the temperature and stress profiles based on calculations of a simple model is presented which shows that the length dependence is due to thermal stresses rather than electromigration, and the width dependence is due to enhanced electromigration due to surface diffusion.

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Investigations into local ferroelectric properties by atomic force microscopy

In this article, we describe nanometer scale characterization of piezoelectric thin films of Lead-Zirconate-Titanate (PZT). Using the electric field from a biased conducting atomic-force microscopy (AFM) tip, we show that it is possible to form and subsequently image ferroelectric domains. Using a sphere-plane model for the tip-sample system we calculate the distribution of electric potential, field and polarization charge, and find good agreement with the experimental values. We also discuss the effects of surface contaminants on domain formation.

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Microcantilever-based biosensors

The use of surface stress-based sensors as bio-chemical sensors was investigated. In principle, adsorption of biochemical species on a functionalised surface of a microfabricated cantilever will cause surface stress and consequently the cantilever bends. Two applications are presented: first lipoproteins and their oxidised form which are responsible for cholesterol accumulation in arteries were differentiated by measuring the surface stress involved in their adsorption on a sugar (heparin); secondly, the surface stress resulting from surface induced conformational changes in protein was monitored. That provided experimental evidence of long time-scale surface processes.

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STM Images of Individual Porphyrin Molecules on Cu(100) and Cu(111) Surfaces.

Simply sublime! Samples of monomeric and dimeric zinc porphyrins were sublimed onto a Cu surface under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. Images obtained by scanning tunneling microscopy at room and low temperature (98 K) show features attributed to individual porphyrin molecules with excellent resolution. In the case of the (relatively large) linear dimer shown, two distinct conformations were detected on a surface with low coverage area. R=CH(2)CH(2)COOCH(3).

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