Stanford to unveil newly renovated hub for nanotech research

Stanford nanotechnology researchers and technology industry leaders will dedicate the latest nanotechnology research facility on campus—the newly renovated Stanford Nanocharacterization Laboratory (SNL)—on Oct. 5 from 3 to 6 p.m. In the facility, located in the Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, researchers will be able to resolve and investigate structures as small as two tenths of a billionth of a meter. Such mastery of the incredibly small is essential to producing innovations in fuel cells, semiconductors and other important technological components.

"This is the first time at Stanford in which we have gathered all our equipment for characterization of materials into one coordinated facility," says Robert Sinclair, director of the SNL and chair of the Materials Science and Engineering Department. "The renovation has created an open laboratory space whereby students and researchers working on different types of instruments can interact, providing a synergy which could not have happened before."

The lab's formal unveiling at 4:45 p.m. will highlight an afternoon of events, beginning with an hour-long tour of the Allen Center for Integrated Systems at 3 p.m., followed by remarks by Arthur Bienenstock, vice provost and dean of research and graduate policy, in Stone Pine Plaza. Joining Sinclair and Bienenstock will be the industry leaders who helped make the renovation and the most recent equipment acquisitions possible. They are Craig Barrett, chairman of Intel Corp. and a former Stanford materials science professor, and his wife, Barbara; Morris Chang, chief executive officer of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp.; and Vahé Sarkissian, president and chief executive officer of FEI Co., which makes nanocharacterization equipment. Barrett, Chang and Sarkissian will speak before Sinclair unveils the lab.

Figuring out fuel cells

One recently acquired FEI tool, a focused ion beam (FIB), is now being used in a multidisciplinary collaboration among three School of Engineering professors to improve the design and prototyping of a fuel cell. Students of Professor Fritz Prinz, chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department, have been using the machine to study ultra-thin membranes that enable the power-producing chemical reaction to take place in solid oxide fuel cells.

"Current solid oxide fuel cells operate efficiently around 800 degrees Celsius, which is very high compared to typical temperatures inside an automobile," explains Paul McIntyre, associate professor of materials science and engineering, who is part of the collaboration along with chemical engineering Professor Stacey Bent. "In order to use such a power plant in a car, it would be necessary to have expensive and heavy cooling systems that are not desirable in a passenger vehicle."

By experimenting with new materials and structures for the membrane, the researchers hope to reduce the fuel cell's operating temperature. The FIB allows researchers to study and experiment with the membranes because it can dissect fuel cell structures, add materials or simply act as a high-resolution microscope, enabling measurements. Such tools and a well-designed environment in which to operate them effectively are essential to nanotechnology work, McIntyre says.

Stanford's nanotechnology nexus

The upgraded SNL is one of several major research facilities at Stanford that together give scientists and students a full suite of tools for exploring and exploiting nanotechnology. Also hosted by the School of Engineering in the Center for Integrated Systems is the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility, which is a shared, 10,000-square-foot clean room for making computer chips and other devices with nanoscale structures. It is supported by the National Science Foundation through the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network. And last year Stanford researchers won a $7.5 million grant to establish the Center for Probing the Nanoscale, a facility for developing new tools for nanotechnology research. It is co-directed by faculty members Kathryn Moler and David Goldhaber-Gordon and located in the Geballe Lab.

"Our advanced electron microscopes, and future surface science tools, provide a natural and extremely important complement to the fabrication, synthesis and computing laboratories at Stanford," Sinclair says. "The SNL opening is indeed an exciting development, expanding Stanford's influence in this critical research area of the future."

Source: Stanford Nanocharacterization Laboratory

Related stories:

Researchers Use Nanowires to Develop Neural Probe That Will Limit Damage to Cells and Biological Tissue
(PhysOrg.com) -- Engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have developed a neural probe that demonstrates significantly greater electrical charge storage capacity than all other neural prosthetic devices. More charge storage capacity means the device can stimulate nerves and tissues with less damage and sense neural signals with better sensitivity.
Carbon nanostructures form the future of electronics and optoelectronics
This year's Julius Springer Prize for Applied Physics will be awarded to Phaedon Avouris and Tony Heinz for their pioneering work on the electrical and optical properties of nanoscale carbon materials including carbon nanotubes − from basic science to exciting applications. The award, accompanied by US$ 5,000, will be presented at the Julius Springer Forum on Applied Physics 2008 at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA, on 27 September 2008.
Mass-Producing Tunable Magnetic Nanoparticles
Taking a cue from the semiconductor industry, a team of investigators at Stanford University has developed a method of producing unlimited quantities of highly magnetic nanoparticles suitable for use as magnetic resonance tumor imaging agents.
Scientists First To Measure Force Required To Move Individual Atoms
IBM scientists, in collaboration with the University of Regensburg in Germany, are the first ever to measure the force it takes to move individual atoms on a surface. This fundamental measurement provides important information for designing future atomic-scale devices: computer chips, miniaturized storage devices, and more.
Nanowire battery holds 10 times the charge of existing ones
Stanford researchers have found a way to use silicon nanowires to reinvent the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power laptops, iPods, video cameras, cell phones, and countless other devices.
Understanding light at the nanoscale: a nano-sized double-slit experiment
Before nanotechnology can reach its full potential, researchers must understand the way things work on the nanoscale—which is often very different from the macroscopic world. One of these areas is light, and how light interacts with matter on tiny scales.
Carbon Joins the Magnetic Club
The exclusive club of magnetic elements officially has a new member—carbon. Using a proton beam and advanced x-ray techniques, researchers at the Department of Energy's Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Leipzig in Germany have finally put to rest doubts about carbon's ability to be made magnetic. The results appeared in the May 4 edition of Physical Review Letters.
IBM brings MRI technology to the nanoscale
IBM today announced that researchers at its Almaden Research Center have demonstrated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to visualize nanoscale objects. This technique brings MRI capability to the nanoscale level for the first time and represents a major milestone in the quest to build a microscope that could "see" individual atoms in three dimensions.

News discussion:

Nanotechnology news