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Optical phase-change materials have enabled nonvolatile programmability in integrated photonic circuits by leveraging a reversible phase transition between amorphous and crystalline states. To control these materials in a scalable manner on-chip, heating the waveguide itself via electrical currents is an attractive option which has been recently explored using various approaches. Here, we compare the heating efficiency, fabrication variability, and endurance of two promising heater designs which can be easily integrated into silicon waveguides—a resistive microheater using n-doped silicon and one using a silicon p-type/intrinsic/n-type (PIN) junction. Raman thermometry is used to characterize the heating efficiencies of these microheaters, showing that both devices can achieve similar peak temperatures but revealing damage in the PIN devices. Subsequent endurance testing and characterization of both device types provide further insights into the reliability and potential damage mechanisms that can arise in electrically programmable phase-change photonic devices.

To identify superior thermal contacts to graphene, we implement a high-throughput methodology that systematically explores the Ni−Pd alloy composition spectrum and the effect of Cr adhesion layer thickness on thermal interface conductance with monolayer graphene. Frequency domain thermoreflectance measurements of two independently prepared Ni−Pd/Cr/graphene/ SiO2 samples identify a maximum metal/graphene/SiO2 junction thermal interface conductance of 114 ± (39, 25) MW/m2 K and 113 ± (33, 22) MW/m2 K at ∼10 at. % Pd in Ninearly double the highest reported value for pure metals and 3 times that of pure Ni or Pd. The presence of Cr, at any thickness, suppresses this maximum. Although the origin of the peak is unresolved, we find that it correlates with a region of the Ni−Pd phase diagram that exhibits a miscibility gap. Cross-sectional imaging by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy identifies striations in the alloy at this particular composition, consistent with separation into multiple phases. Through this work, we draw attention to alloys in the search for better contacts to two-dimensional materials for next-generation devices.

To identify superior thermal contacts to graphene we implement a high throughput methodology that systematically explores the Ni-Pd alloy composition spectrum and the effect of Cr adhesion layer thickness on the thermal interface conductance with monolayer CVD graphene. Frequency domain thermoreflectance measurements of two independently prepared Ni- Pd/Cr/graphene/SiO2 samples both identify a maximum in the metal/graphene/SiO2 junction thermal interface conductance of 114± (39, 25) MW/m2K and 113± (33, 22) MW/m2K at ~10 atomic percent Pd in Ni—nearly double the highest reported value for pure metals and three times that of pure Ni or Pd. The presence of Cr, at any thickness, suppresses this maximum. Although the origin of the peak is unresolved, we find that it correlates to a region of the Ni-Pd phase diagram that exhibits a miscibility gap. Cross sectional imaging by high resolution transmission electron microscopy identifies striations in the alloy at this particular composition, consistent with separation into multiple phases. Through this work, we draw attention to alloys in the search for better contacts to 2D materials for next generation devices.

Rapid and accurate immune monitoring plays a decisive role in effectively treating immune-related diseases especially at point-of-care, where an immediate decision on treatment is needed upon precise determination of the patient immune status. Derived from the emerging clinical demands, there is an urgent need for a cytokine immunoassay that offers unprecedented sensor performance with high sensitivity, throughput, and multiplexing capability, as well as short turnaround time at low system complexity, manufacturability, and scalability. In this paper, a label-free, high throughput cytokine immunoassay based on a magnet patterned Fe3 O4 /Au core-shell nanoparticle (FACSNP) sensing array is developed. By exploiting the unique superparamagnetic and plasmonic properties of the core-shell nanomaterials, a facile microarray patterning technique is established that allows the fabrication of a uniform, self-assembled microarray on a large surface area with remarkable tunability and scalability. The sensing performance of the FACSNP microarray is validated by real-time detection of four cytokines in complex biological samples, showing high sensitivity (≈20 pg mL-1), selectivity and throughput with excellent statistical accuracy. The developed immunoassay is successfully applied for rapid determination of the functional immunophenotype of leukemia tumor-associated macrophages, manifesting its potential clinical applications for real-time immune monitoring, early cancer detection, and therapeutic drug stratificationmore »toward personalized medicine.« less