Acquisition of an Apparatus for Precision Fabrication of Nanostructures and Nanoclusters for Chemistry, Materials Science, and Physics Research

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9871234FeldmanNanostructure science and technology embodies the art and science of fabricating 1-100 nm scale structures in order to study their materials properties. University research in this area drives the scientific frontier and trains students for the ultrasmall-scale technologies envisioned for the future. Funded by the Major Research Instrumentation program, the PIs will acquire and assemble a unique system comprising a finely-focused ion beam (FIB) coupled by a vacuum transfer line to a pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) apparatus. This system will be used to produce nanostructures and nanostructure devices with extremely high precision in an entirely new way, producing nanoclusters of extraordinary uniformity and extremely well determined spatial periodicity. PLD complements the FIB system as an extraordinarily flexible thin-film synthesis tool, widely used to synthesize epitaxial films of high-temperature superconductors, ferroelectrics, semiconductors and complex optical materials, as well as multilayer device structures. The coupled system gives us the critical capability of producing three dimensional arrays, unusual and uncontaminated substrates, and "capped" implanted structures for subsequent processing and characterization. This combination of equipment also enables the realization of advanced device structures in a variety of forefront technologies and will yield unique opportunities for interdisciplinary research of substantial breadth and depth. %%%This instrument combination, acquired with funds from the National Science Foundation's Major Research Instrumentation program, will serve a Vanderbilt goal of interdisciplinary research, by bringing together physicists, chemists, materials scientists, mechanical engineers, and electrical engineers. The collaborators include scientists from nearby Belmont and Fisk (a minority institution) Universities, and the University of Tennessee; Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the Danish Microelectronics Center (MIC). ORNL and the MIC have agreed to be major supporters of the program through contributed expertise in ion beam science (ORNL), pulsed laser deposition (ORNL), and optical device fabrication (MIC). The instrumentation It will be the nucleus of a new research and educational enterprise in middle Tennessee, involving minority-based universities and primarily-undergraduate colleges. It will also be a catalyst for new undergraduate research programs, and opportunities for Ph.D. matriculation at non-Ph.D. granting schools.***