PhD Thesis Defense: Andrew Hamlin

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"Liquid metal printing of ultrathin conductive metal oxides"

Abstract

Widegap metal oxides are critical semiconducting materials in solar power generation, transparent electronics and displays. Ultrathin versions of these materials are poised to be at the forefront of next generation technology due to their high transparency, flexibility, and the capacity to advantageously use backchannel sensitivity and quantum confinement. Liquid metal printing is a novel deposition technique that fundamentally yields ultrathin oxide materials by exfoliating the self-limited oxide that exists on molten metals at low temperatures.

Our work involves the invention of novel liquid metal printing techniques to deposit semiconducting 2D metal oxides with precise electrostatic properties. We investigate the electronic behavior of single and multilayer stacks of InOx, GaOx and ITO materials primarily by integrating them into switching devices. Their optoelectronic and morphological properties are characterized through the use of UV-Vis, XPS, XRD and TEM in order to explain the link between their physical and electronic structure. 2D liquid metal printed oxides have demonstrated a number of advantageous traits such as high mobility and transparency, beneficial responses to heterojunction stacking, and flexibility. The formation of the oxide skin is also examined through the lens of the relevant theory. We generate models from the experimental data and governing oxidation equations in order to predict the synthesis parameters of desirable materials. The overarching aim of our work in the field of liquid metal printing is to discover fundamental characteristics of 2D oxides which could lead to the development of high-performance flexible transparent electronic materials and low-cost, rapid production of metal oxide switching devices.

Thesis Committee

• William Scheideler (Chair)
• Geoffroy Hautier
• Jifeng Liu
• Julia Hsu
  

Contact

For more information, contact Thayer Registrar at thayer.registrar@dartmouth.edu.