MRI: Instrument development for deterministic implants of single ions over a nanometer scale

该主要研究仪器奖支持纽约州立大学理工学院（SUNY Polytechnic Institute）的仪器开发。该项目的成功完成将直接为东北地区5所大学的9个研究小组（约7名博士后和23名研究生）提供纳米器件制造所需的研究能力，从而推动量子信息工程和量子计算机的基础研究。这种确定性的纳米注入能力在工业环境中是不可用的，因此该仪器也可以使半导体工业在其对新一代半导体器件的努力中受益。此外，该项目将为培养一名参与仪器开发的博士后研究人员提供基础，以培养未来的纳米技术仪器。该项目还将在3门本科纳米工程课程的教学中提供现场研究实例和实验室演示，以及为4名来自科学代表性不足的本科生提供实践研究经验。随着晶体管特征尺寸接近物理极限，正在考虑使用固体中的单个原子状缺陷或单个掺杂剂原子的新型计算范例，用于未来信息技术。新型量子器件结构（如金刚石中的单个氮空位缺陷中心或硅中的单个掺杂剂原子的纳米阵列）的产生需要精确控制每个期望的纳米级位置处的缺陷/掺杂剂原子的数量。这对于用于固体中的缺陷产生和原子掺杂的当前现有离子注入工具是不可能的。仪器设计的新颖性包括：（1）使用纳米级聚合物闪烁体来标记单离子注入的位置（2）闪烁光子和二次电子的符合检测以确保单离子注入的准确性/可靠性，以及（3）将仪器与现有加速器集成以提供大范围的注入能量，离子种类和优异的同位素分离能力。所获得的知识和经验也将非常有助于开发其他基于离子束的仪器/技术，用于探测和处理纳米材料，研究结果和成果将通过会议，期刊出版物和互联网传播给研究界。

This Major Research Instrumentation award supports instrument development at State University of New York Polytechnic Institute (SUNY Polytechnic Institute). The successful completion of the project will help advance the fundamental research on quantum information engineering and quantum computers, by directly providing 9 research groups (with about 7 postdoctoral fellows and 23 graduate students) from 5 universities in the northeast region, with the needed research capability for nanodevice fabrication. Such deterministic nano-implant capability is not available in an industrial setting, and thus the instrument can also benefit the semiconductor industry in its efforts toward new generations of semiconductor devices. In addition, the project will provide grounds for training a postdoctoral researcher involved in the instrument development toward the future nanotechnology instrumentalist. The project will also offer live research examples and lab demos in teaching of 3 undergraduate nano-engineering courses, as well as hands-on research experience for 4 undergraduate students from scientifically underrepresented groups.As the transistor feature size is approaching the physical limit, novel computing paradigms using single atomic-like defects or single dopant atoms in solids, are being considered for the future information technology. The creation of novel quantum device structures like nano-arrays of a single nitrogen-vacancy defect center in diamond or single dopant atom in silicon, requires an accurate control of the number of defects/dopant atoms at each desired nanometer scale location. This is impossible with currently existing ion implantation tools that are used for defect generation and atomic doping in solids. The novelties of the instrument design include: (1) the use of a nanoscale polymer scintillator for tagging the position of single ion implants (2) the coincidence detection of scintillation photons and secondary electrons to ensure the accuracy/reliability for single ion implants, and (3) the integration of the instrument with an existing accelerator to offer a large range of implantation energies, ion species and excellent isotope separation capabilities. The acquired knowledge and experience would also be very helpful for developing other ion beam based instruments/techniques for probing and processing of nanoscale materials, and the findings and results will be disseminated to the research community through conferences, journal publications and the Internet.