‘What makes this method unique,’ explained the petite 31-year-old in her Carré office, ‘is that nanoelectronics are typically manufactured from top-down, for example, by etching silicon wafers down to a tenth of a nanometer. But this technique requires numerous steps, is costly, and the structures are often not uniform when the dimension is below 10 nanometers.’
‘Instead, I am developing an alternative fabrication method, the bottom-up approach. We start with smaller units of gold nanoparticles that are already in the 5-nanometer range. These building blocks have higher flexibility in terms of chemical functionalities. With these gold nanoparticles, we can more easily assemble larger structures through interfacial chemical reactions. It’s just like building something with Lego—piece by piece.’
Rianasari is accustomed to working with gold. While obtaining her master’s in Applied Polymer Science from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, she published papers on the surface functionalization of gold electrodes by ink-jet printing technology. ‘Gold is conductive, solid, and a very stable material,’ she explained. ‘But most importantly, it can be chemically functionalized via self-assembly.’
Nanoelectronics are used in small transistors for computing or data storage. Rianasari is just in the beginning stages of her research. She is currently busy trying to control the assembling structures by fine-tuning the functional groups of each of the gold building blocks.
Born in Indonesia, Rianasari moved to Germany eight years ago for her studies. ‘The research jobs in my home country are not as comprehensive as here’ she said. ‘Innovation is rather stark.’ Rianasari hopes to stay in Europe and develop an academic career. ‘Last time I went home, I felt culture shock. I was almost afraid to cross the street in Jakarta!’
Initially it was difficult for Rianasari to leave home to pursue her studies abroad, as she is the youngest girl in her family. ‘It was a difficult decision for me and my family, especially my father,’ she admitted. ‘But I am happy I did it. I promised that I would call home once a week, and I’ve done that now ever since.’
Rianasari has her PhD from the University of Osnabrueck in non-linear optics. ‘I consider myself to be a chemist, but I am also multidisciplined and comfortable working with physics,’ she said. ‘I never planned to become a scientist, it just happened naturally in the flow of my life. I was always attracted to doing research—the possibilities, literature, and equipment.’ Rianasari said that being a young, Asian woman in such a technical field did not pose any difficulties. ‘There have never been any restrictions on my research,’ she said. ‘Here, they see your abilities, not your gender.’
Despite the cold weather, arriving to the Netherlands was like a homecoming for her. ‘The Netherlands has a special tie to Indonesia. There are many shops here that carry Indonesia spices. And I love buying the fresh fish at the Enschede market.’ Besides jogging, cooking, and reading, Rianasari loves shopping in general. ‘You don’t have to buy anything,’ she said. ‘Just window shopping refreshes my mind. And I never miss a summer or winter sale.’ Does she every buy herself some gold? ‘Oh no,’ she laughed. ‘that’s for the lab!’
Rianasari’s love of research recently paid off when her group came in second place last September for their poster on hybrid (spin) electronics at the joint conference between California Nanosystems Institute and MESA+. (Photo: Gijs van Ouwerkerk)
