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@article{WOS:001787556100001,
title = {Searching for success with semiconductor start-ups for artificial
intelligence},
author = {Mario Lanza},
doi = {10.1038/s41928-026-01645-w},
times_cited = {0},
issn = {2520-1131},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-06-01},
journal = {NATURE ELECTRONICS},
publisher = {NATURE PORTFOLIO},
address = {HEIDELBERGER PLATZ 3, BERLIN, 14197, GERMANY},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

@article{WOS:001674879800001,
title = {Nanodot conductive atomic force microscopy},
author = {Osamah Alharbi and Yue Yuan and Wenwen Zheng and Yue Ping and Sebastian Pazos and Husam Alshareef and Kaichen Zhu and Mario Lanza},
doi = {10.1016/j.mser.2026.101187},
times_cited = {0},
issn = {0927-796X},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-04-01},
journal = {MATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING R-REPORTS},
volume = {169},
publisher = {ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA},
address = {PO BOX 564, 1001 LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND},
abstract = {Gate-all-around (GAA) transistors and memristors are two key electronic
components for the semiconductor industry, as they can enable
high-performance computation and memory. State-of-the-art devices
contain a 700-100,000 nm2 insulating thin film exposed to electrical
fields, and understanding its progressive degradation and breakdown is
essential to build reliable devices. Investigations in this direction
must fabricate test structures and/or devices of similar sizes,
otherwise the conclusions extracted are not applicable. Many research
groups use electron beam lithography, but this technique introduces
polymer residues and leads to low fabrication yields due to the complex
lift-off process. Some groups use conductive Atomic Force Microscopy
(CAFM), which employs an ultra-sharp conductive tip to analyse the
properties of a material at small areas ranging from 1 to 600 nm2.
However, the currents registered by CAFM strongly depend on three
parameters that are difficult to control: the radius of the probe tips,
the spring constant of the cantilever, and the relative humidity of the
environment. Therefore, a major problem of CAFM is reproducibility.
Moreover, the minimum current densities that standard CAFM can detect
range from 0.16 to 100 A/cm2, but that is insufficient to study gate
dielectrics for low power applications (that requires analysing values
below 0.01 A/cm2). Here we present nanodot CAFM, a measuring protocol
that consists of placing the probe tip of a CAFM on metallic nanodots
patterned on the surface of the material under test. These structures
cover areas between 700 and 10,000 nm2, and they can be easily deposited
on any arbitrary sample using a standard evaporator and a cheap
aluminium anodic oxide template as shadow mask. Our experiments
demonstrate that this setup is insensitive to relative humidity changes
from 55 % to 4 %, deflection setpoint changes from -0.5 to 1 V, spring
constant changes from 0.8 to 18 N/m, and tip radius changes from 2 to
200 nm, leading to a very high reproducibility. Moreover, this setup
allows analysing current densities below 10-2 A/cm2, which extends its
range of use. Our approach can help the community to make
industry-relevant studies with a high throughput without having to
undergo expensive, slow, and low-yield nanofabrication processes (such
as electron beam lithography or multi project wafer tape outs).},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

@article{WOS:001680918000001,
title = {Breaking the 2-nm Barrier in Hard Disk Drives Using Monolayer Amorphous
Carbon Overcoats},
author = {Hongji Zhang and Artem K Grebenko and Dmitrii Litvinov and Wenwen Zheng and Konstantin V Iakoubovskii and Sergey Y Grebenchuk and Anna Makarova and Alexander Fedorov and Andrei Starkov and Carlo M Orofeo and Denis V Vyalikh and Mario Lanza and Maciej Koperski and Kostya S Novoselov and Chee-tat Toh and Barbaros Ozyilmaz},
doi = {10.1002/adma.202519149},
times_cited = {0},
issn = {0935-9648},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-03-01},
journal = {ADVANCED MATERIALS},
volume = {38},
number = {15},
publisher = {WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH},
address = {POSTFACH 101161, 69451 WEINHEIM, GERMANY},
abstract = {The rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) has increased the
demand for large-scale data storage, making hard disk drives (HDDs)
indispensable in data centers due to their cost-effectiveness and
stability. To support AI-driven data requirements, increasing the areal
storage density is critical. However, this metric is increasingly
constrained by the carbon overcoat (COC), the essential protective layer
for magnetic media. Traditional diamond-like carbon (DLC) can no longer
fulfill the stringent demands for ultrathin coatings and high thermal
stability required by next-generation technologies like Heat-Assisted
Magnetic Recording (HAMR) and bit-patterned media. Here, we introduce
monolayer amorphous carbon (MAC) as a superior alternative. MAC is
directly grown on the heterogeneous (Fe, Pt, SiO2) HDD surface at low
temperatures (similar to 300 degrees C), achieving an uniform 0.8 nm
thickness across 2.5-inch disks. Despite its atomic thickness, MAC
demonstrates high corrosion resistance and low roughness comparable to
commercial 2.5 nm COCs. Its fully amorphous, sp2-hybridized structure
ensures excellent thermal stability under HAMR-like conditions (similar
to 450 degrees C) and a low friction coefficient, enabling potential
lubricant-free operation. Replacing traditional COCs with MAC
facilitates the development of HDD media capable of achieving 10 Tb/in2,
addressing the urgent storage demands of the digital era.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

@article{WOS:001664835100001,
title = {Structural and Mechanical Dynamics of Polymer Membranes Across
Multilength Scales},
author = {Rifan Hardian and Hakkim Vovusha and Yue Yuan and Changxia Shi and Eugene Y -X Chen and Mario Lanza and Gyorgy Szekely},
doi = {10.1002/advs.202521391},
times_cited = {0},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-03-01},
journal = {ADVANCED SCIENCE},
volume = {13},
number = {17},
publisher = {WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH},
address = {POSTFACH 101161, 69451 WEINHEIM, GERMANY},
abstract = {Understanding the mechanical and structural evolution of polymer
membranes under heat and strain is important for many applications.
Conventional techniques, such as dynamic mechanical analysis provide
bulk mechanical information but lack the spatial resolution to capture
localized variations. Similarly, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy
effectively probes long-range order but has limited capability in
analyzing amorphous polymer structures. Herein, we reveal the importance
of mechanical and structural analyses across multilength scales. We
unveiled the opposite trend in surface-to-bulk mechanical behavior of
polymer membranes, necessitating the investigation of both regions to
fully capture their functional behavior. We mapped nanoscale mechanical
inhomogeneities across membrane surfaces with in situ atomic force
microscopy quantitative nanomechanics. Further, we uncovered structural
irregularities across both short- and long-range order using in situ
small- and wide-angle scattering spectroscopies. We investigate key
structural parameters and describe density variations in amorphous
domains. Molecular dynamics simulations corroborate with the observed
structural and mechanical properties at the molecular level. Our
multilength-scale characterization strategy provides a robust framework
for elucidating structure-property relationships from macroscopic to
molecular levels. The approach is generalizable to other systems such as
films, fibers, and two-dimensional materials, enabling new insights into
their dynamic properties.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}

@article{WOS:001702860500014,
title = {Building two-dimensional microprocessors with a foundry-inspired
strategy},
author = {Xuan Li and Mario Lanza},
doi = {10.1038/s41928-026-01567-7},
times_cited = {0},
issn = {2520-1131},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-02-01},
journal = {NATURE ELECTRONICS},
volume = {9},
number = {2},
pages = {123-124},
publisher = {NATURE PORTFOLIO},
address = {HEIDELBERGER PLATZ 3, BERLIN, 14197, GERMANY},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}