Biomedical subjects

Michael F Toney

Publications and source records attributed to Michael F Toney.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Liquid-crystalline semiconducting polymers with high charge-carrier mobility.

Organic semiconductors that can be fabricated by simple processing techniques and possess excellent electrical performance, are key requirements in the progress of organic electronics. Both high semiconductor charge-carrier mobility, optimized through understanding and control of the semiconductor microstructure, and stability of the semiconductor to ambient electrochemical oxidative processes are required. We report on new semiconducting liquid-crystalline thieno[3,2-b ]thiophene polymers, the enhancement in charge-carrier mobility achieved through highly organized morphology from processing in the mesophase, and the effects of exposure to both ambient and low-humidity air on the performance of transistor devices. Relatively large crystalline domain sizes on the length scale of lithographically accessible channel lengths ( approximately 200 nm) were exhibited in thin films, thus offering the potential for fabrication of single-crystal polymer transistors. Good transistor stability under static storage and operation in a low-humidity air environment was demonstrated, with charge-carrier field-effect mobilities of 0.2-0.6 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) achieved under nitrogen.

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PubMed2005

Structure and electrocatalysis of sputtered RuPt thin-film electrodes.

The structural and electrochemical properties of RuPt thin-film electrodes fabricated by radio frequency (rf) magnetron sputtering have been investigated. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction data show a transition from a face-centered cubic (fcc) to hexagonal cubic-packed (hcp) structure as the Ru percentage increases. The transition occurs gradually between 32 and 58% Ru, which is significantly different from the bulk RuPt phase diagram. The catalytic activity of the thin-film electrodes for methanol oxidation shows a broad peak near 40-60% Ru, consistent with previous reports. The relationship between catalytic activity and film structure is discussed and contrasted with previous investigations.

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PubMed2005

Local atomic structure of partially ordered NiMn in NiMn/NiFe exchange coupled layers: 1. XAFS measurements and structural refinement.

The local atomic structure of the Mn in NiMn/NiFe exchange coupled films was investigated using Mn K-edge extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) measurements to elucidate the possible correlation between the coercivity that can occur even in samples that display no signs of NiMn L1(0) ordering in diffraction patterns and such ordering on a length scale below the diffraction limit. Raising the substrate growth temperature from 3 to 200 degrees C increases the extent of L1(0) ordering in the NiMn pinning layer and the associated coercivity. A short-range order parameter (S(SRO)) was derived from EXAFS data for comparison with the long-range order parameter (S(LRO)) obtained from the X-ray diffraction measurements. Analogous to S(LRO), S(SRO) increases in tandem with the pinning layer coercivity, implying the presence of nanometer-scale ordered clusters at the beginning stages of macroscopic L1(0) phase formation that apparently foster antiferromagnetism despite their small size. The behavior of the EXAFS, especially the contributions of the more distant shells, also suggests that the overall structure in materials that are not fully L1(0)-ordered is more accurately described as locally ordered, magnetically ordered, incoherent nanodomains of the L1(0) phase separated by locally disordered, strained, interdomain regions that globally average to the fcc lattice with little or no local fcc structure present. The constraints on the sizes and other characteristics of these domains were explored by examining the diffraction patterns calculated for several two-dimensional analogue structures. These demonstrated that one of the most important structural features in the development of a two-phase diffraction pattern was the presence of dislocations in response to the elastic strain at the interfaces between domains where the accumulated expitaxial mismatch was greater than half of the bond length that rendered the domains incoherent with respect to each other.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2005

p-Channel organic semiconductors based on hybrid acene-thiophene molecules for thin-film transistor applications.

We report the structural and electrical characterization of two new p-channel organic semiconductors, 5,5'-bis(2-tetracenyl)-2,2'-bithiophene (1) and 5,5'-bis(2-anthracenyl)-2,2'-bithiophene (2). Both compounds exhibited a high degree of thermal stability with decomposition temperatures of 530 degrees C and 425 degrees C for 1 and 2, respectively. The thin-film structures of 1 and 2 were examined using wide-angle X-ray diffraction (XRD), grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Films of 1 and 2 pack in similar triclinic unit cells with the long axes of the molecules nearly perpendicular to the substrate. Thin-film transistors (TFTs) based on 1 and 2 exhibit contact-corrected linear regime hole mobility as high as 0.5 cm2/Vs and 0.1 cm2/Vs, respectively. The specific contact resistance at high gate voltages for gold top contacts was 2 x 10(4) Ohms cm and 3 x 10(4) Ohms cm for 35 nm thick films of 1 and 2, respectively. Long-term air stability tests revealed less degradation of the electrical properties of 1 and 2 in comparison to pentacene. Variable temperature measurements revealed activation energies as low as 22 and 27 meV for 1 and 2, respectively. The temperature and gate voltage dependence of the mobility are discussed in terms of a double exponential distribution of trap states and a model accounting for the layered structure of the organic films. The enhanced air and thermal stability over pentacene, combined with good electrical performance characteristics, make 2 a promising candidate for future organic TFT applications.

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PubMed2004

Structural characterization of a pentacene monolayer on an amorphous SiO2 substrate with grazing incidence x-ray diffraction.

Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction reveals that a pentacene monolayer, grown on an amorphous SiO2 substrate that is commonly used as a dielectric layer in organic thin film transistors (OTFTs), is crystalline. A preliminary energy-minimized model of the monolayer, based on the GIXD data, reveals that the pentacene molecules adopt a herringbone arrangement with their long axes tilted slightly from the substrate normal. Although this arrangement resembles the general packing features of the (001) layer in single crystals of bulk pentacene, the monolayer lattice parameters and crystal structure differ from those of the bulk. Because carrier transport in pentacene OTFTs is presumed to occur in the semiconductor layers near the dielectric interface, the discovery of a crystalline monolayer structure on amorphous SiO2 has important implications for transport in OTFTs.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2004

Pore morphologies in disordered nanoporous thin films.

Materials with nanometer size heterogeneities are commonplace in the chemical and biological sciences (e.g, polymer blends, microemulsions, gels) and often exhibit complex morphologies. Although this morphology has a dramatic effect on the materials' properties, it is often difficult to accurately characterize. We describe a method, using small-angle X-ray scattering data, of generating representative three-dimensional morphologies of isotropic two-phase materials where the morphology is disordered, and we apply this to thin films containing nanometer sized pores with a range of porosities (4-44%). These representations provide a visualization of the pore morphology, give the pore size scale and extent of interconnection, and permit the determination of the transitions from closed pore to interconnected pores to bicontinuous morphology.

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