Nanoscale Advanced Materials Engineering

几千年来，材料的发展支撑着人类和社会的发展，而且随着时间的推移，这种发展还在加速。从青铜的发现到熟铁，再到钢铁和聚合物，我们周围的可见世界都是依靠这些材料的内在特性来塑造和建造的。20世纪发生了一场新的材料革命，导致了电子（如硅）、光学（如玻璃纤维）或磁性（如记录介质）材料的发展。这些材料通过微电子（计算机）、万维网（光纤通信）和相关技术的发展，改变了我们与世界和彼此互动的方式。现在，进入21世纪已经20年了，我们需要在更小的尺度上为材料添加更多的功能，以开发更有能力的技术，提高能源效率，并以可接受的制造成本。在追求这一目标的过程中，我们现在发现自己处于当前材料加工技术的极限，这些技术通常具有复杂的材料特性（例如热学和电子学）。当我们接近100纳米以下的长度尺度时，我们必须利用量子效应来解决对性能和能效逐步变化的设备的需求，并最终在某些情况下突破量子力学的基本限制。在该项目资助中，我们将开发一种基于纳米级先进材料工程（NAME）的新方法来实现材料功能化。这种方法可以通过添加（掺杂）单原子来修饰材料，达到数万亿的精度（约20纳米，不到人类头发厚度的1000分之一）。这将使我们能够在高度本地化的位置特定地功能化材料，而剩下的材料可用于修改。这将首次提供一种新的方法来解决现有方法在这些小长度尺度的技术开发中所面临的限制。我们将能够在纳米尺度上独立改变材料的电子和热性能，并使用精确的掺杂来增强工程材料的光学功能。雄心勃勃，我们的目标是使用NAME来控制迄今为止难以充分利用的材料特性（例如量子力学自旋），并控制预测但尚未直接实验观察或控制的系统状态（例如拓扑表面状态）。最终，我们可能会提供一条可行的途径来开发材料中的量子比特（量子位），这是实现量子计算机的先决条件。NAME是曼彻斯特大学、利兹大学和伦敦帝国理工学院国际领先的英国研究人员之间的一个合作项目，他们共同领导亨利·罗伊斯研究所的研究主题，即“原子到设备”。通过罗伊斯、EPSRC和每个大学合作伙伴的投资，他们已经共同建立了所需的大量基础设施和最先进的设施。该项目资助将提供资源，以组建实现NAME愿景所需的更广泛的团队，包括英国学者、研究人员和博士后研究人员，并由大学资助的博士生提供支持。该项目还得到了英国和国际上更广泛的学术界和工业界的大力支持。

Development of materials has underpinned human and societal development for millennia, and such development has accelerated as time has passed. From the discovery of bronze through to wrought iron and then steel and polymers the visible world around has been shaped and built, relying on the intrinsic properties of these materials. In the 20th century a new materials revolution took place leading to the development of materials that are designed for their electronic (e.g. silicon), optical (e.g. glass fibres) or magnetic (e.g. recording media) properties. These materials changed the way we interact with the world and each other through the development of microelectronics (computers), the world wide web (optical fibre communications) and associated technologies.Now, two decades into the 21st century, we need to add more functionality into materials at ever smaller length-scales in order to develop ever more capable technologies with increased energy efficiency and at an acceptable manufacturing cost. In pursuing this ambition, we now find ourselves at the limit of current materials-processing technologies with an often complex interdependence of materials properties (e.g. thermal and electronic). As we approach length scales below 100s of nanometres, we have to harness quantum effects to address the need for devices with a step-change in performance and energy-efficiency, and ultimately for some cases the fundamental limitations of quantum mechanics.In this programme grant we will develop a new approach to delivering material functionalisation based on Nanoscale Advanced Materials Engineering (NAME). This approach will enable the modification of materials through the addition (doping) of single atoms through to many trillions with extreme accuracy (~20 nanometres, less than 1000th the thickness of a human hair). This will allow us to functionalise specifically a material in a highly localised location leaving the remaining material available for modification. For the first time this will offer a new approach to addressing the limitations faced by existing approaches in technology development at these small length scales. We will be able to change independently a material's electronic and thermal properties on the nanoscale, and use the precise doping to deliver enhanced optical functionality in engineered materials. Ambitiously, we aim to use NAME to control material properties which have to date proven difficult to exploit fully (e.g. quantum mechanical spin), and to control states of systems predicted but not yet directly experimentally observed or controlled (e.g. topological surface states). Ultimately, we may provide a viable route to the development of quantum bits (qubits) in materials which are a pre-requisite for the realisation of a quantum computer. Such a technology, albeit long term, is predicted to be the next great technological revolution NAME is a collaborative programme between internationally leading UK researchers from the Universities of Manchester, Leeds and Imperial College London, who together lead the Henry Royce Institute research theme identified as 'Atoms to Devices'. Together they have already established the required substantial infrastructure and state-of-the-art facilities through investment from Royce, the EPSRC and each University partner. The programme grant will provide the resource to assemble the wider team required to deliver the NAME vision, including UK academics, research fellows, and postdoctoral researchers, supported by PhD students funded by the Universities. The programme grant also has significant support from wider academia and industry based both within the UK and internationally.