U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Nanotechnology

Nanofabrication / manufacturing

Projects/Programs

Displaying 1 - 25 of 51
Micrographs of kinetic inductance-based parametric amplifier

Amplifiers

Ongoing
We have developed parametric amplifiers based on two different technologies: Josephson Junctions and superconductors with high kinetic inductance, a representation of the kinetic energy of superconducting Cooper-pair charge carriers. Junction-based parametric amplifiers (JPAs) are well suited for
Atom_manipulation_icon

Atom Manipulation with the Scanning Tunneling Microscope

Ongoing
Manipulation of single atoms with the scanning tunneling microscope is made possible through the controlled and tunable interaction between the atoms at the end of the STM probe tip and the single atom (adatom) on a surface that is being manipulated. In the STM tunneling junction used for atom
STM patterning at 4K.

Atom-based Silicon Quantum Electronics

Ongoing
This project is developing atomically precise, atom-based electronic devices for use in quantum information processing and analog quantum simulation. We are developing the fabrication, measurement, and modeling methods needed to realize single atom, spin-based qubits in silicon as an integrated
Microfluidic tissue/organ on a chip system

Bioelectronic Sensors for Tissue/Organ-on-a-Chip Systems

Ongoing
We apply our expertise in micro/nanofabrication, electrokinetics and cell-based assays to develop bioelectronic sensors in microfluidic platforms. We are working on a platform that entraps cells for electrochemical monitoring in an environment that has mechanical properties more similar to those
Schematic of interface engineering 2D materials.

Chemical Functionalization and Manipulation of Nano Materials

Ongoing
This project focuses on manipulating nanomaterials, including weakly bonded van der Waals systems, and probing emergent phenomena in these nanoengineered systems to impact technologies such as nanoelectronics, optoelectronics, quantum sensing, and quantum computing. Developing processes to
simulated 3d SEM images of a 60nm gold nanoparticle

Computational Scanning Electron Microscopy

Ongoing
In many cases, SEM measurements are carried out without knowledge of the best measurement conditions, partly due to engineering limits of the SEM, but also due to lack of thorough knowledge of the physics of the signal generation. For example, in many cases the best-quality results can be obtained
EUV optics degradation in space

Degradation of extreme-ultraviolet optics

Ongoing
The primary degradation process in EUVL tools and satellite instruments begins by the adsorption of water or carbonaceous molecules from the vacuum environment onto the optic surface. The optic is damaged if the molecule undergoes photon-stimulated decomposition before it can (reversibly) thermally

Development of Enhanced mRNA Amplification Using Microfluidics

Ongoing
Intended Impact:Tissue samples frequently contain multiple cell types. New methods (e.g. laser capture microdissection) enable the segregation of small quantities of individual cells and cell types, but the current methods to analyze global gene expression do not provide highly efficient profiling

Dimensional Metrology for Nanoscale Patterns

Completed
Dimensional metrology and control is a critical component of semiconductor fabrication. State-of-the-art integrated circuits are comprised of nearly a billion nanoscale transistors linked together by an equally as impressive nanoscale network of conductors, insulators, and capacitors. To ensure that
SEM measurement of PS-PMMA lamellae on a neutral substrate

Directed Self-Assembly of Block Copolymers (Archived)

Completed
Diblock copolymers are long molecular chain polymers with two (di) regions, or blocks, of dissimilar monomers. They are constructed by covalently linking two different polymer chains at their ends. The two regions can be chosen so that they repel each other. Normally mixtures of different polymers
Schematic showing DNA origami in a laser beam

DNA Origami for Precise Manufacturing of Nanoscale Structures

Completed
The base pairing of adenine to thymine and guanine to cytosine to form DNA provides a robust molecular recognition scheme that can be used to create a wide variety of well-ordered nanostructures. DNA origami, which uses a long scaffold strand folded together by specific sets of short staple strands
EUV graphs

Dynamic EUV Imaging and Spectroscopy for Microelectronics

Ongoing
Collaborations with industry leaders have led us to develop new measurement techniques to improve our understanding thermal transport, spin transport, and nanoscopic (and interfacial) material properties in active device structures. Such capability requires the ability to measure these properties at
Three-dimensional view of carbon nanostructures grown on the surface of a glass fiber

Electron Microscopy of Carbon Nanotube Composites

Ongoing
Multi-wall CNTs (MWCNTs) are a common nano-carbon reinforcement material and are frequently dispersed into a polymer matrix to form composites that can be engineered with specific combinations of desirable properties – electrical, thermal, optical and mechanical, etc. However, this
2D Material Electronic Test

Electronic Material Characterization

Ongoing
Manufacturing optimized devices that incorporate newly-emerging materials requires predictable performance throughout device lifetimes. Unexpected degradation in device performance, sometimes leading to failure, is often traceable to poor material reliability. Reliability is rooted in the stability
circuit

Emerging Hardware for Artificial Intelligence

Ongoing
Here is a brief description of our work with links to recent papers from our investigations, broadly classified as experimental and modeling. A brief overview of Josephson junction-based bio-inspired computing can be found in our review article. Experimental We have facilities to develop our devices
STM image of a 28-Si film deposited onto a Si/100 substrate

Enriched Silicon and Devices for Quantum Information

Ongoing
Enriching silicon from 5% to <1 ppm 29Si Groundbreaking work around the world has realized qubits in silicon using metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) devices, single atomic dopants/defects and SiGe heterostructures, and, in all cases, the qubit coherence and fidelity properties are improved when using

Fluctuations and Nanoscale Control (Archived)

Completed
In liquids, the motion of a nanoparticle results from a complex interplay of fluid flow, external and internal dynamics, and random Brownian motion. Each of these processes leads to fluctuations in a measured signal. Normally it is an important (and difficult) task for the experimenter is to

Fluctuations and Nanoscale Control Software (Archived)

Completed
For each file YYY.m, type "doc YYY" from the Matlab command prompt for documentation, literature references, and usage guidelines. DSigma2_Est.m Estimates the diffusion coefficient (D) and localization noise (σ 2 or "Sigma2") from single-particle tracking data. It implements the algorithms for the
Mechanical stylus instrument

Forensic Topography and Surface Metrology

Ongoing
Surface texture and microform Surface texture affects the functionality of many products, ranging from bearings to semiconductors and optics. Affected properties include aesthetics, friction, wear, lubrication, sealing, light scattering, and conductivity. Improvements in parameters and metrology to

Ion Traps

Ongoing
Trapped ions are sensitive to electric-field noise from trap-electrode surfaces. This noise has been an obstacle to progress in trapped-ion quantum information processing (QIP) experiments for more than a decade. It causes motional heating of the ions, and thus quantum-state decoherence. This

Magnetic Random Access Memory

Ongoing
Focus areas include (1) the fundamental understanding of the interactions between spin and magnetic materials and materials with large spin-orbit scattering; (2) the nonlinear dynamics of both individual and interacting nanoscale magnetic systems; and (3) the role of thermal noise in nanomagnetic