MRI: Acquisition of Electron Beam Evaporation System for Multidisciplinary Research and Education

本研究的目标是实质性地加强微/纳米功能器件的制造，用于微/纳米电子学，生物工程和物理学领域的多学科研究和教育。该方法是在乔治梅森大学（GMU）的共享访问设施内获得电子束蒸发系统，以存款薄膜和多层金属，半导体和氧化物材料，厚度为纳米精度。智力优点：所要求的系统将提高沉积薄膜材料以形成电极、绝缘体、半导体通道和纳米结构的能力，允许大学和本地工业研究人员在纳米电子、能源和生物医学设备等各种应用方面进行合作。所要求的仪器将能够研究高性能纳米线MOSFET、生物传感器、共生表面、有机太阳能电池、拓扑绝缘体材料和纳米级场效应二极管。该研究将涉及物理学、电子学、生物学和化学等广泛学科的基本问题和议题，并最终促进这些学科之间的交叉授粉，从而导致新的研究方向。更广泛的影响：所请求的系统所实现的研究将对未来健康技术、纳米电子学和太阳能转换设备的发展产生重大影响。所要求的工具将提供给大量的学生，博士后和教师在GMU，其他大学，国家实验室和工业合作伙伴，涉及很大比例的代表性不足的少数民族和妇女。拥有最先进设备的实践经验使学生和博士后为进入劳动力市场做好充分准备，准备从事研究，开发和制造。

The objective of this research is to materially strengthen the fabrication of micro/nanoscale functional devices for the multidisciplinary research and education within the areas of micro/nanoelectronics, bioengineering and physics. The approach is to acquire an electron beam evaporation system within the Shared-Access Facility at George Mason University (GMU) to deposit thin films and multilayers of metal, semiconductor and oxide materials with thickness at nanometer precision. Intellectual merit: The requested system will enhance the capability of depositing thin film materials to form electrodes, insulator, semiconductor channels and nanostructures, allowing collaboration among university and local industry researchers for a wide variety of applications including nanoelectronics, energy and biomedical devices. The requested instrument will enable research into high-performance nanowire MOSFETs, biosensors, symbiotic surfaces, organic solar cells, topological insulator materials and nanoscale field effect diodes. The enabled research will deal with fundamental questions and issues in a wide range of disciplines in physics, electronics, biology and chemistry, and will ultimately facilitate cross pollination between these groups leading to new veins of research.Broader impacts: The research enabled by the requested system will have significant impact in the development of future health technology, nanoelectronics and solar energy conversion devices. The requested instrument will be available to a large number of students, post-docs and faculty in GMU, other universities, national labs and industrial partners that involve a large proportion of underrepresented minorities and women. Hands-on experience with state-of-the-art equipment makes students and post-docs well-prepared to enter the workforce ready to engage in research, development and manufacturing.