Development of Nanoimprint Infrastructure at Lund Nano Lab..
- Reference number
- RIF14-0090
- Start and end dates
- 160101-211231
- Amount granted
- 15 000 000 SEK
- Administrative organization
- Lund University
- Research area
- Materials Science and Technology
Summary
The Nanometer Structure Consortium (nmC) at Lund University is world-leading in the materials science, physics and applications of semiconductor nanowires. Enabled by unique and highly optimized infrastructure at Lund Nano Lab (LNL) – a nationally accessible ”beamline” for the growth, processing and characterization of nanowires – a broad range of large-scale applications of nanowires have been brought into reach, including highly efficient solar cells, LEDs, biomedical devices and electronics. A key enabler to bring these applications to the market is the capacity to pattern large areas of a substrate (full wafers) with very high precision and very high resolution. Here, we will further develop nanoimprint lithography (NIL), specifically for large-scale applications of nanowires, thus critically extending the capabilities from a focus on basic research towards applications. The project will be led by Dr. Ivan Maximov, who has been leading LNL operations since 1998, and has been instrumentally involved in the development of NIL, a technology originally developed at Lund. Effective January 2015, LNL has employed a laboratory operations manager who will take over day-to-day operations from Maximov. Concurrently, Maximov will be stepping into a new role as LNL coordinator within nmC, and as the Head of Exploratory Nanotechnology at Lund University. This project will strengthen the nmC core lab infrastructure to the benefit of about 150 researchers and corporate users.
Popular science description
The current application deals with development of nanoimprint infrastructure and nanoimprint lithographic technology at Lund Nano Lab to enable large-scale applications of semiconductor nanowires (NW). Nanowires are semiconductor rods with a very small diameter of 30-150 nm and length of several micrometers. Due to their small diameter, the NWs have unique optical and electrical properties which can be used for future generation of very fast and energy efficient transistors, light-emitting diodes and other electronic and optical elements. Usually the NWs are made by so-called electron beam lithography (EBL) where a finely focused electron beam is used to make Au seed particles to define nanowires. The EBL is very slow and expensive technique and can be replaced by a new method of nano-structuring, called nanoimprint lithography (NIL). The NIL technique is much faster than EBL and not very expensive, however, it is more difficult to implement it because the NIL pattern is transferred by a physical contact between the stamp and substrate via replication of the stamp features ("printing"). The aim of the project is to develop the NIL infrastructure and technology in order to make it possible a mass-production of NWs with low cost and high quality. The NIL-based nano fabrication technique will have significant effect on both basic nano-research and on commercial companies involved in research and development of the new products. Here we apply for funding, mostly for salary of Ivan Maximov and postdocs researchers who will develop the NIL technology.