MRI: Acquisition of an Electron-Beam Lithography Tool for Research, Education and Training

该主要研究仪器（MRI）奖支持购买最先进的电子束光刻（EBL）工具，以满足宾夕法尼亚大学及其在中大西洋地区的学术和工业邻居的纳米级研究和教学需求。EBL仪器能够在几十纳米的尺度上对各种材料和器件进行图像化。这台先进仪器的功能对于推进各种科学和工程学科前沿的研究至关重要，包括对电荷、自旋、光、热和运动行为的基本探索，以及在光子学和电子学、量子计算和通信、可穿戴和植入式健康监测、微观和宏观尺度能源技术、化学/生物和运动传感等领域的应用。参与的教师在教育和推广活动中使用EBL系统，以扩大科学和工程领域代表性不足群体的参与。工程和科学学科的本科生和研究生将在纳米制造技术方面获得宝贵的研究经验和实践知识。该仪器被安置在Quattrone纳米制造设施中，该设施是宾夕法尼亚大学Singh纳米技术中心内的一个多用户研究和培训设施，也是美国国家科学基金会国家纳米技术协调基础设施（NNCI）站点中大西洋纳米技术中心（MANTH）的所在地。EBL系统配备了用于多通道曝光的动态时钟，具有高保真度可编程写入顺序控制，可实现高通量、高放置精度、高剂量分辨率精度，以具有纳米级特征和所需复杂性的模式结构。该仪器对于开发创新方法将材料结构成广泛主题的体系结构至关重要：光子和等离子体光发射器，拓扑光子和量子逻辑门，以及用于高容量信息传输和处理的集成光子学；具有奇异能带结构的量子材料，用于动态可调谐电子、光电和传感器件；氧化物和卤化物钙钛矿具有有趣的铁、压电和热电，以及对其纳米级界面的新结构和物理性质的操纵；大规模超低重量、坚固的机械超材料；以及用于微型和纳米级机器人、谐振器和传感器的2D到3D可折叠结构。这项高影响力的研究应用于计算、通信、健康、食品能源水安全、国家安全、人机界面等领域。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award supports the acquisition of a state-of-the-art Electron-Beam Lithography (EBL) tool to meet the nanoscale research and teaching needs of the University of Pennsylvania and its academic and industrial neighbors in the Mid-Atlantic region. The EBL instrument enables a wide range of materials and devices to be patterned on the scale of tens of nanometers. The capabilities of this advanced instrument are central to advancing research at the forefront of diverse science and engineering disciplines, including the fundamental exploration of the behavior of charge, spin, light, heat, and motion with applications in photonics and electronics, quantum computation and communication, wearable and implantable health monitoring, micro- and macro-scale energy technologies, and chemo-/bio- and motion sensing. Participating faculty members use the EBL system in educational and outreach activities to broaden participation from underrepresented groups in science and engineering. Undergraduate and graduate students in the engineering and science disciplines will gain valuable research experience and practical knowledge in nanofabrication techniques. The instrument is housed in the Quattrone Nanofabrication Facility, a multi-user research and training facility within the Singh Center for Nanotechnology at the University of Pennsylvania and home to the Mid-Atlantic Nanotechnology Hub (MANTH), an NSF National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI) site. The EBL system is equipped with a dynamic clock for multipass exposure with high-fidelity programmable writing order control, which enables high-throughput, high placement accuracy, high-dose resolution accuracy to pattern structures with nanometer-scale features and desired complexity. The instrument is essential to developing innovative methods to structure materials into architectures for a broad range of topics: photonic and plasmonic light emitters, topological photonic and quantum logical gates, and integrated photonics for high capacity information transmission and processing; quantum materials with exotic band structures for dynamically tunable electronic, optoelectronic, and sensing devices; oxide and halide perovskites with intriguing ferro-, piezo-, and pyro-electricity and the manipulation of their nanoscale interfaces for novel structure and physical properties; large-scale ultralow weight, robust mechanical metamaterials; and 2D to 3D foldable structures of interest for micro- and nano-scale robots, resonators, and sensors. This high-impact research has applications that span computing, communication, health, food-energy-water security, national security, to human-machine interfaces.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.