S. A. Shivashankar

• Development of chemical precursors
• MOCVD of oxide thin films
• ALD of metals and metal oxides
• Thermodynamic modeling of the CVD process
• Microstructure development in MOCVD-grown films
• Properties of thin films.

Research Areas:

• Rational development of volatile and non-toxic precursors the synthesis/deposition of thin films through chemical routes (mostly metalorganic complexes).
• Deposition of thin films of a variety of oxides using reactors built in house and precursors synthesized in house: ZrO2, HfO2, TiO2, Co3O4, VO2, V2O5, oxides of Fe, oxides of Mn, Magnéli phases of vanadium and titanium oxides, Al2O3, and rare earth oxides.
• Deposition of thin films of metals (Cu, Co) and metal oxides (ZrO2, vanadium oxides) in a homemade five-channel ALD reactor.
• To understand the formation of metal oxides from metalorganic complexes.
• The examples of Al2O3, cobalt oxides, and vanadium oxides have been used to explore the development of microstructure and the occurrence of nanostructure in oxide films grown by MOCVD from β-diketonate complexes.
• The electrical (dielectric), optical, magnetic, and mechanical properties of the films deposited as above are investigated with a specific view to applying them in appropriate devices.

1. “Determination of the enthalpies of sublimation and evaporation from thermogravimetric data: Application to metalorganic complexes of Al and Cr”, Gairola, Anshita; Kunte, G. V.; Umarji, A. M.; Shivashankar, S. A., Thermochimica Acta (2009), 488(1-2), 17-20.
2. “Assembly of sol-gel-grown LixCoO2 nanocrystals through electromagnetic irradiation”, Das, Mahua; Ranjith, R.; Bittencourt, C.; Krupanidhi, S. B.; Pireaux, J. J.; Shivashankar, S. A., Applied Physics A: Materials Science & Processing (2009), 95(2), 523-536.
3. ” Ellipsometric study of Atomic Layer Deposited TiO2 thin films”, Jaiswal, Piyush; Kunte, G. V.; Umarji, A. M.; Shivashankar, S. A., AIP Conference Proceedings (2009), 1147(Transport and Optical Properties of Nanomaterials), 396-401.
4. “Surfactant-mediated synthesis of functional metal oxide nanostructures via microwave irradiation-assisted chemical synthesis”, Sanjaya Brahma, S. A. Shivashankar, Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. (2009), 1174-V02-08.
5. ” Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of NiO Nanoparticles”, Jena, Anirudha; Shivashankar, S. A., AIP Conference Proceedings (2008), 1063(Mesoscopic, Nanoscopic, and Macroscopic Materials), 211-216.
6. “Thermodynamic analysis of the growth of iron oxide films by MOCVD using tris(t-butyl-3-oxo-butanoato)iron(III) as precursor” Sukanya Dhar, K. Shalini, and S. A. Shivashankar, Bulletin of Materials Science (in press), 2008.
7. “Carbonaceous coatings of MnO by MOCVD: Thermodynamic analysis of the process, experimental investigation, and an application” Sukanya Dhar, A. Varade, and S. A. Shivashankar, Advance Materials (Communicated), 2008.
8. “A nanocomposite thin film of Co+CoO as a novel transparent conductor: a metalorganic route stemming from thermodynamic predictions” Sukanya Dhar, A. U. Mane, K. Shalini, and S. A. Shivashankar, Journal of Materials Research (Communicated), 2008.
9. “Microwave synthesis of NiO nanoparticles”, Jena, Anirudha and Shivashankar, S.A., Proceedings of IWMNMM (International Workshop on Nanoscopic, Mesoscopic Macroscopic and Microscopic Materials) (Submitted), 2008.
10. “MOCVD of ZrO2 films from bis (t-butyl-3-oxo-butanoato) zirconium (?V): some theoretical (thermodynamic) and experimental aspectcs” Sukanya Dhar, M.S Dharmaprakash and S. A. Shivashankar, Bull. Mater. Sci. Vol. 31(1), 2008, pp-67-72.
11. “Adducts of bis(acetylacetonato)zinc(II) with 1,10-phenanthroline and 2,2′-bipyridine”, Brahma, Sanjaya; Sachin, H. P.; Shivashankar, S. A.; Narasimhamurthy, T.; Rathore, R. S., Acta Crystallographica, Section C: Crystal Structure Communications (2008), C64(3), m140-m143.
12. “Thermogravimetric evaluation of the suitability of precursors for MOCVD”, Kunte, G. V.; Shivashankar, S. A.; Umarji, A. M., Measurement Science and Technology (2008), 19(2), 025704/1-025704/7.
13. “Low pressure MOCVD of Er2O3 and Gd2O3 films”, Singh, M. P.; Shripathi, T.; Shalini, K.; Shivashankar, S. A. , Materials Chemistry and Physics (2007), 105(2-3), 433-441.
14. “Guiding And Confining Light In Nanoporous Cu4O3-C Composite Thin Films”, Das, Mahua and Shivashankar, S. A., Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings (2007), Volume Date 2006, 964E(Meta-Materials at the Milli-, Micro-, and Nanoscale).
15. “Bis(tert-butyl-3-oxobutanoato)dipyridinenickel(II) benzene solvate”, Nayak, Susanta K.; Jena, Anirudha; Neelgund, Gururaj M.; Shivashankar, S. A.; Row, T. N. Guru, Acta Crystallographica, Section E: Structure Reports Online (2007), E63(6), m1604.
16. “2-(Cyanomethoxy)benzonitrile”, Narasimhamurthy, T.; Shashidhar; Shivashankar, S. A.; Reddy, P. Vittala; Rathore, R. S., Acta Crystallographica, Section E: Structure Reports Online (2007), E63(2), o796-o798.
17. Synthesis, characterization and investigation of the thermal behaviour of six novel polynuclear cobalt and copper complexes for potential application in MOCVD, Das, Mahua; Shivashankar, S. A., Applied Organometallic Chemistry (2007), 21(1), 15-25.
18. Structural and electrical properties of low pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition grown Eu2O3 films on Si(100), Singh, M. P.; Shalini, K.; Shivashankar, S. A.; Deepak, G. C.; Bhat, N., Applied Physics Letters (2006), 89(20), 201901/1-201901/3.
19. Determination of interlayer composition at buried interfaces using soft x-ray resonant reflectivity, Nayak, Maheswar; Lodha, G. S.; Sinha, A. K.; Nandedkar, R. V.; Shivashankar, S. A., Applied Physics Letters (2006), 89(18), 181920/1-181920/3
20. Precursor chemistry for TiO2: titanium complexes with a mixed nitrogen/oxygen ligand sphere, Baunemann, Arne; Hellwig, Malte; Varade, Ashish; Bhakta, Raghunandan K.; Winter, Manuela; Shivashankar, S. A.; Fischer, Roland A.; Devi, Anjana, Dalton Transactions (2006), (28), 3485-3490.
21. Growth of nanocrystalline TiO2 films by MOCVD using a novel precursor. Shalini, K.; Chandrasekaran, S.; Shivashankar, S. A., Journal of Crystal Growth (2005), 284(3-4), 388-395.
22. “Metalorganic chemical vapor deposition of Cu films from bis(t-butyl-3-oxo-butanoato)copper(II) : thermodynamic investigation and experimental verification,” Sukanya Mukhopadhyay, K. Shalini, R. Lakshmi, Anjana Devi, and Shivashankar, S.A., Surface and Coatings Technology, 150, 205-211, 2002.

Patent:

1. “A method of obtaining a coating of a metal compound onto a substrate, an apparatus and a substrate thereof”, Sanjaya Brahma and S. A. Shivashankar, International PCT Application No. PCT/IN2009/000555.

2. A Subthreshold CapFET Sensor for sensing analyte, a method and system thereof, Navakanta Bhat, Balaji Jayaraman, S. A. Shivashankar, Rudra Pratap, International PCT Application No. PCT/IN2008/000385.

3. “A composition of electrode material in the form of a coating and a process thereof” A. Varade, S. A. Shivashankar, Sukanya Dhar, and S. Sampath, (International PCT Application No.PCT/IN07/000372, Filed on: 29/08/2007)

4. “A rapid coating process and its application to lead-acid batteries”, S. A. Shivashankar, A.K. Shukla, Anil U. Mane, B. Hariprakash, and S.A. Gaffoor. United States Patent No. 6889410 (2005)