Abstract
The advent of novel nanostructured materials has enabled wearable and 3D electronics. Unfortunately, their characterization represents new challenges that are not encountered in conventional electronic materials, such as limited mechanical strength, complex morphology and variability of properties. We here demonstrate that force-resolved measurements can overcome these issues and open up routes for new applications. First, the contact resistance to 2D materials was found to be sensitively depending on the contact force and, by optimizing this parameter, reliable contacts could be repeatably formed without damage to the fragile material. Moreover, resistance of three-dimensional surfaces could be investigated with high accuracy in spatial position and signal through a force-feedback scheme. This force-feedback approach furthermore permitted large-scale statistical characterization of mobility and doping of 2D materials in a desktop-sized automatic probing system that fits into glove boxes and vacuum enclosures using easily available and low-cost components. Finally, force-sensitive measurements enable characterization of complex electronic properties with high lateral resolution. To illustrate this ability, the spatial variation of a surface’s electrochemical response was investigated by scanning a single electrolyte drop across the sample.
Highlights
The advent of novel nanostructured materials has enabled wearable and 3D electronics
Recent years have seen a revolution in electronics concerning both the range of available materials and the capabilities of novel devices
Nanostructured materials, such as 2D materials, nanowires, organic polymers, and functional molecules have demonstrated unprecedented properties and abilities in carrier conduction, sensing, and information processing[1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. These advances have been employed to produce novel wearable, high performance, and large scale electronic devices supporting the vision of ubiquitous electronics
Summary
The advent of novel nanostructured materials has enabled wearable and 3D electronics. Current synthesis approaches yield mixtures of properties, such as chirality, dimensions, and variable extrinsic interactions that complicate engineering design[13] To address these challenges and enhance the understanding of nanostructured materials, a comprehensive electrical characterization approach is required that permits investigation on large device numbers, retains the structure of nanomaterial, and is compatible with different measurement techniques. We here extend the capabilities of electrical probing towards adaptability to complex and dynamically changing morphologies, retaining the structural integrity, and permitting measurements on statistically relevant scales by a force-resolved approach. This advance is achieved by combining electrical probing and indentation techniques that analyze the force–displacement characteristics of a material. Indentation has demonstrated the ability to extract important information about the mechanical properties of complex nanostructured materials[22] preserve fragile morphologies[23], and conduct statistical e valuation[24], which are attractive features for electrical probing
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