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Nanophotonics and Nanoelectronics
Jerry Simmons, SNL
Victor Klimov, LANL
 Description:
The Nanophotonics and Nanoelectronics theme will be built upon capabilities
needed to control electronic and photonic properties of nanostructured
materials. The capabilities will be targeted at the overall scientific
challenge of understanding and controlling fundamental electronic and
photonic interactions in nanostructured materials, which will require
achieving control of material properties at the level of electron and
photon wavefunctions. The thrust area will support user programs, both
in nanophotonics and nanoelectronics and in areas that require the integration
of capabilities from this thrust with other CINT thrusts. The scientific
challenges to be addressed will include developing nanostructures significantly
more complex than existing materials, incorporating multiple constituents,
finer length scales, and new 3D architectures. These complex nanostructures
will exhibit unique electronic and optical properties that will enable
a new generation of miniature, multifunctional, high performance devices.
The research will be strongly supported by an effort in instrument development
with an emphasis on ultra-pure semiconductor growth with atomic precision,
and on new characterization tools that will allow monitoring of electronic
phenomena with atomic-scale spatial resolution.
The research topics that will be addressed include:
1) control and manipulation of charge, spin, and wave functions in individual
nanostructures and assemblies of únanoblocksî of various complexities,
2) single-electron quantum transport including electron spin and its implications
for quantum computing,
3) single-electron memory arrays,
4) functional circuits comprising arrays of molecular transistors,
5) photon harvesting nanostructures for energy conversion and catalysis,
6) úactiveî photonic nanostructures for optical amplification, ultrafast
optical switching and chem/bio sensing, and 7) photonic lattices for high
bandwidth optical communications and computing.
Key equipment and facilities at full operation:
Multi-use clean room for processing of a wide variety of materials.
It will include photolithography, metal deposition, etching tools and
characterization equipment.
Electron beam lithography capabilities for top-down patterning of
nanostructures and integration with larger structures.
Molecular beam epitaxy for growth of ultra-high purity compound semiconductor
heterostructures enabling well defined single electron energy levels
General use transport labs for both dc and high frequency electrical
measurements at low (milliKelvin) temperature and high magnetic fields.
Wet-chemistry laboratory for fabrication (synthesis and assembly)
of organic and inorganic nanostructured materials including colloidal
quantum dots, synthetic opal structures, organic/inorganic multilayers,
light-harvesting nanoassemblies, etc.
Facilities for high-spatial resolution imaging and spectroscopy using
úregularî and úadvancedî scanning probes; úadvancedî probes include
an ultrafast scanning tunneling microscope (STM), a transient absorption,
near-field scanning optical microscope/spectrometer (NSOM), and a magnetic
resonance-force microscope.
Facilities for state-of-the-art single molecule/nanostructure and
ultrafast optical and THz spectroscopies.
Equipment and facilities at startup:
Facility for semiconductor growth and electron beam lithography.
Cryogenic facilities for low-temperature and high-magnetic-field
electrical and optical measurements.
Energetic neutral atom beam epitaxy for high-spatial resolution etching
and thin film growth.
Wet-chemistry laboratory for colloidal synthesis.
Optical spectroscopy and microscopy instrumentation including capabilities
for time-resolved measurements.
Facilities and capabilities for scanning tunneling, atomic-force
and near-field microscopies.
Programs and personnel at startup: A number of existing
programs will be used to support the capabilities of the thrust during
the CINT startup phase. Within these programs, specific scientific areas
that are being explored include:
1) Active assembly of photonic nanostructures,
2) Self-assembly of nanostructures,
3) Coulomb interactions and quantum (phase) interference of electrons
in coupled lower dimensional semiconductor structures,
4) Superparamagnetic transition in shape controlled magnetic nanoparticles,
5) Development of ultrafast STM and NSOM, and
6) Energy transfer through assemblies of nanostructured components.
Key personnel who will contribute to the thrust area include the thrust
leaders and the PIs of leveraged programs (V. I. Klimov, J. Simmons,
A. Taylor, M. Lilly, S. Lin, M. Sinclair, J. Reno, D. Smith, M. Hoffbauer,
J. Wendt, and S. Trugman).
More...
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