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About the CNST Research Program

Current opportunities for direct collaboration with our research staff are focused on the topics below. We also welcome suggestions for new research directions that support CNST’s mission.

image icon-sample produced by Directed Assembly Lab
Directed Assembly
Research to fabricate and study the effects of templating structures on the organization of nanoscale materials and their resultant properties. The facility includes a low-vacuum scanning electron microscope (SEM) for measurement of the assembled structures.
Contact:  James "Alex" Liddle
   image icon-sample produced by SEMPA facility
Nanomagnetic Imaging
Spin polarized electrons generated in an SEM with polarization analysis (SEMPA) image magnetic structures over a large magnification range. Measurements are sensitive to less than one monolayer of magnetic material.
Contact:  John Unguris
image icon-sample produced by Atom Optics facility
Laser-Atom Manipulation
Laser control of atomic motion to develop new nanofabrication and nanoscale measurement methods in a fully equipped atom optics laboratory.
Contact:  Jabez McClelland
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Nanomagnet Dynamics
Research on the fabrication and magnetization dynamics of magnetic nanostructures. Using microwave spectroscopy techniques, precise information is revealed about the nanoscale material and structural properties.
Contact:  Robert McMichael
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Nanophotonics
Research to study nanofabricated optical structures that confine light to wavelength-scale dimensions and to investigate light-matter interactions with near-field probing and microphotoluminescence systems.
Contact:  Kartik Srinivasan
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Nanoscale Transport
The electronic and ionic transport properties of thin-film materials and nanoscale objects investigated in a laboratory for device fabrication and photo-electrical probing equipped with probe station, cryostats, and air/ liquid/high-vacuum scanning probe microscopy (SPM).
Contact:  Nikolai Zhitenev
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Optical MEMS and NEMS
Integrated optical micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) with nanoscale elements (NEMS) are being developed for novel imaging, metrology, manipulation, and assembly techniques. Topics of interest include mechanically agile scanning probes, integrated optical sensing and actuation of MEMS, manipulation of MEMS/NEMS with holographic optical tweezers, and high-throughput nearfield imaging using nanofabricated optical reference structures.
Contact:  Vladimir Aksyuk
   image icon atomic characterization research
Atomic Characterization and Manipulation
Research to fabricate and measure the geometric and electronic structure of materials with atomic resolution using an ultra-high vacuum cryogenic/high magnetic field scanning tunneling microscope (STM) system. Tailor-made nanostructures can be fabricated using single atom manipulation along with molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).
Contact: Joseph A. Stroscio
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Nanoplasmonics
The design and nanofabrication of metal-based photonic components and metamaterials that exploit subwavelength confinement of light, for applications in information processing, metrology, and microscopy.
Contact:  Henri Lezec
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Theory, Modeling, and Simulation of Nanosctructures
Research directed toward understanding the behavior of nanostructures under study in the experimental research programs in CNST. Includes access to a computational cluster.
Contact:  Mark Stiles

Interacting with the CNST Research Program

You can make a CNST researcher aware of whatever nanotechnology measurement problems, you or your industrial sector have or expect to have, to help guide the research of this Program. However, more direct interactions are available through collaboration. By contacting the CNST or reviewing the CNST web site, you can find the tools or projects of value to you and then you can contact the relevant individuals to discuss possible collaborations. Work with the Research Program is generally through collaborations because of the special nature of the tools and techniques used. Examples of recent collaborators include Intel, Advanced Microsensors, IBM, Georgia Tech, Princeton, University of Chicago, FEI Corporation, Johns Hopkins University, Texas A&M, Argonne National Laboratory, Cornell University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Cambridge, Arizona State University, Naval Research Laboratory, Seagate, and the Army Research Laboratory. Other collaborations with major organizations are in various stages of discussion and planning. Most of these collaborations involve the use of a prototype tool in the CNST Research Program. A good example of how a user can benefit from the collaborative use of prototype tools in CNST is provided by the SEMPA tool, which provides a leading way of imaging magnetic nanostructure and was first developed at NIST. A commercial version of SEMPA was recently developed. However, SEMPA has been available and used at NIST by industry, government, and academia through collaborative arrangements for almost 20 years.

Proprietary work undertaken by members of the Research Program is charged at a full recovery rate.





Online: May 2007
Last Updated: August 2008

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