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Carbon-MEMS and NEMS form an emerging class of miniaturized devices, which are fabricated through pyrolysis of lithographically patterned polymers. The microstructure and properties of pyrolytic carbon that constitutes the carbon-MEMS device can be tuned during its fabrication and pyrolysis to suit the application of interest.
While the common applications of carbon-MEMS exploit the electrical and electrochemical properties of pyrolytic carbons, in our recent research we modified the pyrolysis process to yield a novel magnetic form of carbon that contains a large number of unpaired electrons with restricted mobility. This unreactive, thermally robust carbon-form features strong room-temperature paramagnetism with a superparamagnet-like magnetic phase. Pyrolytic magnetic carbon offers numerous magnetic-MEMS and spintronic device fabrication possibilities. Additionally, it can be used for contrast enhancement during Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), on-chip Dynamic Nuclear Polarization to complement Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, magnetic field correction and other related applications such as the fabrication of Magnetic Force Microscopy (MFM) tips.
In this talk, first an overview of the carbon-MEMS fabrication process and microstructural tuning of the pyrolytic carbon will be provided. This discussion will be extended to the manufacture of magnetic carbon, whose structure, properties and applications will be presented in further details. The contents of the talk are likely to interest electrochemists, magnetic materials/ applications experts, and researchers investigating carbon
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