New Materials

The realization of new nanoscale materials and structures can enable revolutionary versus evolutionary advances in science and technology. The Lieber group is committed to the discovery and design of new nanoscale materials and structures with an emphasis on rational control of morphology, size, structure, composition and doping of nanowires on multiple length scales. Our focus on control and elaboration and discovery of new nanowire structures is motivated both by the fact that such control enables design of increasingly complex function through materials synthesis, and by the central role that these building blocks play in realizing the powerful bottom-up paradigm for the future. Specific research areas being pursued include the following:

Core/shell and axial nanowire structures. We are pursuing studies of the growth and characterization of nanowires that involve the modulation of dopant and/or composition in concentric radial shells built upon a well-defined nanowire core as well as along the nanowire axis. Current interest is focused on systems designed to exhibit novel electronic function, for example, through the incorporation of multiple semiconductor and/or functional oxide shells to well-defined semiconductor nanowire cores.
Kinked nanowire structures. We are currently pursuing the design and synthetic methods to prepare and introduce controllable kinks and/or branch points into the basic one-dimensional (1D) nanowire structure in order to create designed 2D and 3D nanomaterials with topologically-defined and functional loci. Such designed and self-labeled 2D/3D nanowire structures will open up unique directions and applications in bottom-up integration of active devices.

Ultimately, we strive to expand existing and create entirely new and general classes of nanoscale building blocks that open up novel research opportunities and technologies within our group and for the field as a whole.

Selected Publications

L. Xu, Z. Jiang, Q. Qing, L. Mai, Q. Zhang, and C.M. Lieber, "Design and synthesis of diverse functional kinked nanowire structures for nanoelectronic bioprobes," Nano Lett. 13, 746-751 (2013).
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T.J. Kempa, J.F. Cahoon, S.-K. Kim, R.W. Day, D.C. Bell, H.-G. Park and C.M. Lieber, “Coaxial multishell nanowires with high-quality electronic interfaces and tunable optical cavities for ultrathin photovoltaics,” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 109, 1407-1412 (2012).
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B. Tian, P. Xie, T.J. Kempa, D.C. Bell and C.M. Lieber, "Single crystalline kinked semiconductor nanowire superstructures," Nature Nanotechnol., 4, 824-829 (2009)
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Selected Publications

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