Research Group: Center for Condensed Matter Physics Full-time Project: yes
This project has been supported by the Faculty for Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) funding. If you wish to be considered for another funding route, please contact the supervisor [j.mol@qmul.ac.uk].
Nanopore-integrated biosensor technology has attracted considerable attention with its promise of revolutionizing techniques ranging from biological interfaces to rapid pathogen detection to enabling molecular data storage [1]. However, these devices are yet to live up to their full potential. This is partly due to complex fabrication requirements resulting in low device yields and limited throughput [2] and performance [3]. Techniques to fabricate solid-state nanopores have typically been time consuming or lacked the resolution to create pores with diameters down to a few nanometres, as required for the above applications [4]. However, controlled breakdown has recently emerged as a highly appealing technique to fabricate solid-state nanopores for a wide range of biosensing applications [5]. We recently developed a new controlled breakdown method that provides a path towards the affordable, rapid, and automatable fabrication of arrays of nanopores self-aligned with complementary on-chip nanostructures [6]. This project will build on the advancements to develop nanopore-integrate biosensors. We will utilise state-of-the art transmission electron microscopy and thermal scanning probe lithography to characterise and sculpt the graphene-nanopore interface with nanometre precision [7].
[1] Puczkarski et al., J. Mater. Res. 32, 3002–3010 (2017)
[2] Fried et al., MRS Commun. 8, 1–9 (2018)
[3] Fried et al., Nanoscale 12, 871–876 (2020)
[4] Fried et al., Chem. Soc. Rev. 50, 4974–4992 (2021)
[5] Fried et al., Small 17, (2021)
[6] Fried et al., arXiv:2111.02730 (2021)
[7] Dyck et al., Small Methods 5, 1–7 (2021)
SPCS Academics: Dr Jan Mol