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Erika
Artukovic
Background
I grew up in sunny Souther California in the small town of Los Alamitos.
I attended Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, where I earned a
BA in Physics and Philosophy. After graduating in 2001, I took a
year off to work as part of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in Seattle
at an addiction treatment center for homeless people. I returned
to my home state in 2002 to begin the PhD program at UCLA. When
I'm not studying or in the lab, I enjoy music, movies, and occassionally,
even a little television.
Current
Research
My current research involves fabricating flexible and transparent nanotube networks for use in transistors. Using a simple spray technique, nanotube networks can be deposited onto almost any surface. These networks can then function as the source-drain channel, gate, or even source and drain electrodes in a transistor device. Combining all three would lead to an entirely nanotube network transistor which only requires two different materials: nanotubes and an insulating dielectric.
I also use nanotube network transistors as biosensors in a liquid-gating setup. A nanotube network forms the source-drain channel component of a transistor which is gate through a liquid electrolyte. The nanotubes can be functionalized in order to be sensitive to different biomolecules. The attachment of a biomolecule to the nanotube involves a charge transfer, and this charge transfer can be observed as a shift in the threshold voltage of the transistor characteristics.
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