A SEM-Based Nanomanipulation System for Manipulation and Multiphysical Characterization of Semiconductor, Metallic, and Biological Nanomaterials

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The ability of precisely manipulating nanometer-sized structures and characterizing their mechanical, electrical and optical properties could enable novel scientific research of functional nanomaterials. This application requests a four-probe nanomanipulation system with optical excitation/measurement capability for use inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM), for manipulation and opto-electro-mechanical characterization of semiconductor, metallic, and biological nanomaterials. To our best knowledge, this equipment will be the first of its kind in Canada. The requested equipment will serve as an enabling multifunctional facility to support collaborative projects among eight investigators from different disciplines of two institutions (McGill and INRS). Enabled by the requested equipment, our research objectives include: (i) to perform opto-electro-mechanical characterization of single III-nitride nanowires for developing novel photonic devices; (ii) to characterize the piezoelectric properties of zinc-oxide nanowires hydrothermally grown on paper for understanding the fundamental sensing mechanism of paper-based piezoelectric sensors; (iii) to create novel plasmonic nanostructures through high-precision assembly of metallic nano-rices and semiconductor quantum dots; and (iv) to test the mechanical properties of single collagen nanofibers for multiscale modeling of biomaterials. The requested equipment will greatly support NSERC Discovery research programs of the eight applicants and their ongoing collaborative projects, lead to more collaborative applications for federal and provincial research funds, and train a large number of highly qualified personnel in micro/nanosystems, precision instrumentation, nanomaterial characterization, nano-electronics/photonics, and biomechanics.