Studies of self-assembled nanostructures for integration with microfabricated devices

This thesis discusses the structure and manipulation of three classes of materials: self-assembled quantum dots formed from materials deposited on a lattice-mismatched layer, self-assembled monolayers patterned by electron beam lithography, and liquid crystal molecules in contact with nanotextured surfaces. Self-assembled nanostructures are presented as a means of extending conventional microfabrication techniques to a smaller scale.; Cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy, spectroscopy, and luminescence measurements are discussed for In_0.7Ga_0.3As quantum dots embedded in a GaAs structure. Luminescence results indicate that the quantum dots capture carriers from a larger region than their apparent extent in topographic STM images.; Self-assembled monolayers with reactive end groups were patterned using electron beam lithography, either directly or by filling a patterned inert monolayer with a reactive monolayer. The resulting surfaces act as chemical templates for the adhesion of metal colloids, carbon nanotubes, and biomolecules.; Finally, several techniques are discussed for creating nanotextured surfaces for aligning liquid crystal molecules, with an emphasis on applications in displays and optical imaging elements. The combination of a bidirectionally-evaporated gold surface with self-assembled monolayers enabled construction of a passive liquid crystal element containing 100 micron domains of two different orientations.