We offer two JAE Intro 2023 CSIC fellowships

Carmen Ocal
March 21, 2023
The call is open to undergraduate and master’s students as a fascinating introduction to research through personalized tutored training.
The fellowships are for 7 months and endowed with 4,200 €.
Deadline: 15 May 2023
Our group is offering 2 projects (see below the proposals’ summaries). 

All information about the call, eligibility and requirements can be found at:

JAE program 2023 CSIC  
Access to the Applications system

If you have any question related to these projects, do not hesitate to contact directly with us: 
PROJECT 1:   Esther Barrena ebarrena@icmab.es  
PROJECT 2: Daniel Martin-Jimenez dmartin@icmab.es
 

PROJECT 1 : A nanoscale mapping of the electrical properties of organic semiconductors films by scanning probe microscopy 

The technological progress achieved in the last years in the fabrication of devices based on organic semiconductors (OSCs) such as organic solar cells, light emitting diodes or field effect transistors has been possible thanks to advances in the structure–property relationships. To make reality the increasing demands of organic electronics still requires a deeper understanding of the properties at the nanoscale in correlation with the device properties. The goal of this experimental work is to evaluate how local variations in the structure of the OSC influences the electrical transport at the level of single molecular layers using scanning probe microscopy, which is one of the most versatile characterization tools in nanoscience.

PROJECT  2: Characterization of Torsional Eigenmode in sensors for Atomic Force Microscopy

The outermost layer of atoms of solids is defining how a specific material interacts with its surroundings.  In fact, the surface is probably the most important region of the material, particularly for the miniaturized structures employed in nanoscience and nanotechnology. Indeed, materials scientists wish to determine and manipulate many surface properties to improve the functionality of the material. For that, surface sensitive techniques are needed. Among them, the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) provides correlated information by exploring the topography, mechanical, electrical, magnetic properties of a wide variety of materials’ surface; and all this, with sub-nanometric resolution thanks to its main component: the sensor. The AFM sensor consists of a flexible micro-cantilever, with a few atoms sharp tip at the end that interacts directly with the sample’s surfaces. The sensor can be operated to interact in contact or intermittently with the sample. In this latter case, the sensor is typically excited nearby its fundamental resonance frequency, which causes the normal oscillation of the tip toward the sample. Obviously, the micro-cantilever can also be excited with higher flexural eigenmodes, or even torsional eigenmodes. Interestingly, the sensor can also be simultaneously excited with more than one resonance frequency, allowing for additional observables and thus a deeper sample characterization [2]. The main parameters of each eigenmode depend on the shape of the sensor. Some of the parameters, such as the frequency, can be directly detected, e.g. by a thermal spectrum. By contrast, others, such as the elastic constant, are unknown and must be determined using diverse procedures described in the literature [3]. This project aims to verify the accuracy of the calibration processes, especially for torsional eigenmodes, and to test the benefit of these modes to discriminate surface regions. The candidate will study sensors with different geometries to find out those providing higher sensitivity to lateral forces on multi-domain organic thin films, fabricated in the Physical Chemistry of Surfaces and Interfaces group. The results of this work will be of outstanding importance for the production of defect-free active layers in molecular electronic devices.

[1] D. Martin-Jimenez et al. Nanoscale, 14, 5329 (2022).
[2] D. Ebeling et al. ACS Nano, 7, 10387 (2013).
[3] M. Munz. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 43, 063001 (2010).