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We report the first investigation into the potential of electroless nickel deposition to form ohmic contacts on single layer graphene. To minimize the contact resistance on graphene, a statistical model was used to improve metal purity, surface roughness, and coverage of the deposited film by controlling the nickel bath parameters (pH and temperature). The metalized graphene layers were patterned using photolithography and contacts deposited at temperatures as low as 60 °C. The contact resistance was 215 ± 23 Ω over a contact area of 200 μm × 200 μm, which improved upon rapid annealing to 107 ± 9 Ω. This method shows promise toward low-cost and large-scale graphene integration into functional devices such as flexible sensors and printed electronics.

The characteristics of polycrystalline BaTiO3 metal-insulator-metal capacitors, fabricated using pulsed laser deposition, are investigated from room temperature to 420 K. The capacitance–voltage characteristics show ferroelectric behaviour at room temperature, with a phase transition to paraelectric at higher temperature. However, the permittivity response shows paraelectric behaviour across all measured temperatures. So BaTiO3 exists here in a mixture of cubic and tetragonal phases. The BaTiO3 films have a columnar structure, with grain size increasing with film thickness due to their increasing height but not diameter. This correlates with an increase in remnant polarization. The results support a size driven phase transition in thin films of polycrystalline BaTiO3.

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We introduce a new approach to creating low-resistance metal-semiconductor ohmic contacts, illustrated using high conductivity Au island metal films (IMFs) on Ge, with hot carrier injection initiated at low applied voltage. The same metallization process simultaneously allows ohmic contact to n-Ge and p-Ge, because hot carriers circumvent the Schottky barrier formed at metal/n-Ge interfaces. A 2.5× improvement in contact resistivity is reported over previous techniques to achieve ohmic contact to both n- and p- semiconductor. Ohmic contacts at 4.2 K confirm nonequilibrium current transport. Self-assembled Au IMFs are strongly orientated to Ge by annealing near the Au/Ge eutectic temperature. Au IMF nanostructures form, provided the Au layer is below a critical thickness. We anticipate that optimized IMF contacts may have applicability to many material systems. Optimizing this new paradigm for metal-semiconductor contacts offers the prospect of improved nanoelectronic systems and the study of voltage controlled hot holes and electrons.