Understanding Electrical Conduction and Nanopore Formation During Controlled Breakdown

Jasper P. Fried; Jacob L. Swett; Binoy Paulose Nadappuram; Aleksandra Fedosyuk; Pedro Miguel Sousa; Dayrl P. Briggs; Aleksandar P. Ivanov; Joshua B. Edel; Jan A. Mol; James R. Yates

doi:10.1002/smll.202102543

Understanding Electrical Conduction and Nanopore Formation During Controlled Breakdown

Jasper P. Fried, Jacob L. Swett, Binoy Paulose Nadappuram, Aleksandra Fedosyuk, Pedro Miguel Sousa, Dayrl P. Briggs, Aleksandar P. Ivanov, Joshua B. Edel, Jan A. Mol, James R. Yates

Nanofabrication Research Laboratory

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Controlled breakdown has recently emerged as a highly appealing technique to fabricate solid-state nanopores for a wide range of biosensing applications. This technique relies on applying an electric field of approximately 0.4–1 V nm⁻¹ across the membrane to induce a current, and eventually, breakdown of the dielectric. Although previous studies have performed controlled breakdown under a range of different conditions, the mechanism of conduction and breakdown has not been fully explored. Here, electrical conduction and nanopore formation in SiN_x membranes during controlled breakdown is studied. It is demonstrated that for Si-rich SiN_x, oxidation reactions that occur at the membrane-electrolyte interface limit conduction across the dielectric. However, for stoichiometric Si₃N₄ the effect of oxidation reactions becomes relatively small and conduction is predominately limited by charge transport across the dielectric. Several important implications resulting from understanding this process are provided which will aid in further developing controlled breakdown in the coming years, particularly for extending this technique to integrate nanopores with on-chip nanostructures.

Original language	English
Article number	2102543
Journal	Small
Volume	17
Issue number	37
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202102543
State	Published - Sep 16 2021

Funding

Substrate, membrane, and some of the electrode fabrication was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility. J.F. thanks the Oxford Australia Scholarship committee and the University of Western Australia for funding. J.Y. was funded by an FCT contract according to DL57/2016, [SFRH/BPD/80071/2011]. Work in J.Y.'s lab was funded by national funds through FCT ‐ Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I. P., Project MOSTMICRO‐ITQB with refs UIDB/04612/2020 and UIDP/04612/2020 and Project PTDC/NAN‐MAT/31100/2017. J.M. was supported through the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, Grant No. MR/S032541/1, with in‐kind support from the Royal Academy of Engineering. A.I. and J.E. acknowledge support from BBSRC grant BB/R022429/1, EPSCR grant EP/P011985/1, and Analytical Chemistry Trust Fund grant 600322/05. This project has also received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 724300 and 875525). The authors would like to thank Andrew Briggs for providing financial support. Substrate, membrane, and some of the electrode fabrication was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility. J.F. thanks the Oxford Australia Scholarship committee and the University of Western Australia for funding. J.Y. was funded by an FCT contract according to DL57/2016, [SFRH/BPD/80071/2011]. Work in J.Y.'s lab was funded by national funds through FCT - Funda??o para a Ci?ncia e a Tecnologia, I. P., Project MOSTMICRO-ITQB with refs UIDB/04612/2020 and UIDP/04612/2020 and Project PTDC/NAN-MAT/31100/2017. J.M. was supported through the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, Grant No. MR/S032541/1, with in-kind support from the Royal Academy of Engineering. A.I. and J.E. acknowledge support from BBSRC grant BB/R022429/1, EPSCR grant EP/P011985/1, and Analytical Chemistry Trust Fund grant 600322/05. This project has also received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 724300 and 875525). The authors would like to thank Andrew Briggs for providing financial?support.

Funders	Funder number
Analytical Chemistry Trust Fund	600322/05
Ci?ncia e a Tecnologia
EPSCR	EP/P011985/1
FCT ‐ Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia	UIDP/04612/2020, PTDC/NAN-MAT/31100/2017, UIDB/04612/2020
Office of Science
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
UK Research and Innovation	MR/S032541/1
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council	BB/R022429/1
Royal Academy of Engineering
European Research Council
University of Western Australia
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia	SFRH/BPD/80071/2011
Horizon 2020	724300, 875525

Keywords

dielectric breakdown
nanofabrication
single-molecule biosensing
solid-state nanopores

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1002/smll.202102543

Cite this

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abstract = "Controlled breakdown has recently emerged as a highly appealing technique to fabricate solid-state nanopores for a wide range of biosensing applications. This technique relies on applying an electric field of approximately 0.4–1 V nm−1 across the membrane to induce a current, and eventually, breakdown of the dielectric. Although previous studies have performed controlled breakdown under a range of different conditions, the mechanism of conduction and breakdown has not been fully explored. Here, electrical conduction and nanopore formation in SiNx membranes during controlled breakdown is studied. It is demonstrated that for Si-rich SiNx, oxidation reactions that occur at the membrane-electrolyte interface limit conduction across the dielectric. However, for stoichiometric Si3N4 the effect of oxidation reactions becomes relatively small and conduction is predominately limited by charge transport across the dielectric. Several important implications resulting from understanding this process are provided which will aid in further developing controlled breakdown in the coming years, particularly for extending this technique to integrate nanopores with on-chip nanostructures.",

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N2 - Controlled breakdown has recently emerged as a highly appealing technique to fabricate solid-state nanopores for a wide range of biosensing applications. This technique relies on applying an electric field of approximately 0.4–1 V nm−1 across the membrane to induce a current, and eventually, breakdown of the dielectric. Although previous studies have performed controlled breakdown under a range of different conditions, the mechanism of conduction and breakdown has not been fully explored. Here, electrical conduction and nanopore formation in SiNx membranes during controlled breakdown is studied. It is demonstrated that for Si-rich SiNx, oxidation reactions that occur at the membrane-electrolyte interface limit conduction across the dielectric. However, for stoichiometric Si3N4 the effect of oxidation reactions becomes relatively small and conduction is predominately limited by charge transport across the dielectric. Several important implications resulting from understanding this process are provided which will aid in further developing controlled breakdown in the coming years, particularly for extending this technique to integrate nanopores with on-chip nanostructures.

AB - Controlled breakdown has recently emerged as a highly appealing technique to fabricate solid-state nanopores for a wide range of biosensing applications. This technique relies on applying an electric field of approximately 0.4–1 V nm−1 across the membrane to induce a current, and eventually, breakdown of the dielectric. Although previous studies have performed controlled breakdown under a range of different conditions, the mechanism of conduction and breakdown has not been fully explored. Here, electrical conduction and nanopore formation in SiNx membranes during controlled breakdown is studied. It is demonstrated that for Si-rich SiNx, oxidation reactions that occur at the membrane-electrolyte interface limit conduction across the dielectric. However, for stoichiometric Si3N4 the effect of oxidation reactions becomes relatively small and conduction is predominately limited by charge transport across the dielectric. Several important implications resulting from understanding this process are provided which will aid in further developing controlled breakdown in the coming years, particularly for extending this technique to integrate nanopores with on-chip nanostructures.

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Understanding Electrical Conduction and Nanopore Formation During Controlled Breakdown

Abstract

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Keywords

UN SDGs

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