Science of Oxide Nanobelts - from materials to nanodevices

WANG Zhong Lin (王中林)

School of Material Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta GA 30332-0245, USA
e-mail: zhong.wang@mse.gatech.edu

Nanowire and nanotube based materials have been demonstrated as building blocks for nanocircuits, nanosystems and nano-optoelectronics. Recently, ultra-long belt-like, quasi-one-dimensional nanostructures (so called nanobelts or nanoribbons) have been successfully synthesized for semiconducting oxides of zinc, tin, indium, cadmium and gallium, by simply evaporating the desired commercial metal oxide powders at high temperatures [1]. The as-synthesized oxide nanobelts are pure, structurally uniform, single crystalline and most of them free from dislocations; they have a rectangular-like cross-section with typical widths of 30 - 300 nm, width-to-thickness ratios of 5 - 10 and lengths of up to a few millimeters. The belt-like morphology appears to be a unique and common structural characteristic for the family of semiconducting oxides with cations of different valence states and materials of distinct crystallographic structures. Using the technique demonstrated for measuring the mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes based on in-situ transmission electron microscopy [2,3], the bending modulus of the oxide nanobelts has been measured and the nanobelt is shown to be a dual mode nanoresonator for NEMS technology. Field effect transistors [4] and ultra-sensitive nano-size gas sensors [5], nanoresonators and nanocantilevers [6] have also been fabricated based on individual nanobelts. Thermal transport along the nanobelt has also been measured. Nanocantilevers based on nanobelts have been fabricated. Very recently, structurally nanobelts exhibiting piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties have been synthesized, which could be a candidate for nano-scale traducers, actuators and sensors.

1. Z.W. Pan, Z.R. Dai and Z.L. Wang, Science, 209 (2001) 1947.
2. P. Poncharal, Z.L. Wang, D. Ugarte and W.A. de Heer, Science, 283 (1999) 1513; Electron Microscopy of Nanotubes, ed. Z.L. Wang and C. Hui, Kluwer Academic Publisher (2003).
3. R.P. Gao, Z.L. Wang, Z.G. Bai, W. de Heer, L. Dai and M. Gao, Phys. Rev. Letts., 85 (2000) 622; Z.L. Wang, P. Poncharal and W.A. De Heer, Pure Appl. Chem. Vol. 72 (2000) 209.
4. M. Arnold, P. Avouris, Z.L. Wang,. Phys. Chem. B, 107 (2002) 659.
5. E. Comini, G. Faglia, G. Sberveglieri, Zhengwei Pan, Z. L. Wang Applied Physics Letters, 81 (2002) 1869.
6. W. Hughes and Z.L. Wang, Appl. Phys. Letts., 82 (2003) 2886.
7. Z.L. Wang, X.Y. Kong and J.M. Zuo "Induced growth of asymmetric nanocantilever arrays on polar surfaces", Phys. Rev. Letts. 91 (2003) 185502 + cover.
8. X.Y. Kong, Z.L. Wang and J. Wu "Rectangular single-crystal mullite microtubes", Advanced Materials, 15 (2003) 1445-1449 + cover.
9. X.Y. Kong and Z.L. Wang "Spontaneous polarization and helical nanosprings of piezoelectric nanobelts", Nano Letters, December issue (2003) + cover.

王中林 - 个人简历

王中林是佐治亚理工学院(Georgia Institute of Technology)终身制正教授, 纳米材料分析和表征中心主任,纳米科学和技术中心主任。王教授已在国际一流刊物上发表了330篇论文﹐26篇综述和书章节文章﹐140篇会议论文﹐八项专利，四本专著和十本编辑书籍。他已被邀请做过240多次学术讲演和大会特邀报告。他的学术论文已被引用四千次以上。他成功地组织和担任过五次学术会议的主席。王教授荣获了美国显微镜学会 1999年巴顿奖章﹐佐治亚理工学院2000年杰出研究奖﹐2001年S.T.Li奖金(美化学学会)﹐美国自然科学基金会CAREER基金﹐中国首批国家自然科学基金会海外优秀青年科学家基金,中国科学院海外杰出学者基金获得者，中国科学院海外专家顾问团成员和国家自然基金委海外评委。他是教育部清华大学"长江"特聘讲座教授﹐北京大学客座教授﹐中国科技大学客座教授﹐浙江大学客座教授﹐厦门大学兼职教授﹐华南理工大学兼职教授，哈尔傧工业大学兼职教授，西安电子科技大学兼职教授﹐中国科学院物理所客座教授﹐中国科学院国际量子中心海外中心成员﹐北京科技大学兼职教授，华南师范大学客座教授, 天津理工学院名誉教授。王教授2002年被新当选为欧洲科学院院士。法国居里夫人大学和法国联合大学（L'Institut Universitaire de France (IUF)）于2003年五月七日，以王教授个人的名誉举行了专题纳米科技研讨会（a symposium in the honor of Prof. Wang）。王教授是从1992到2002十年中纳米科技论文引用次数世界个人排名前25位作者之一.

Personal web page:

http://www.mse.gatech.edu/people/faculty/wang/wang.html

Group web page:

http://www.nanoscience.gatech.edu/zlwang/