AVS2015 Session MS-TuA: Working with National Labs and User Facilities

The Cornell Nanoscale Science and Technology Facility (CNF) is one of a network of open-access shared facilities partially subsidized by the US National Science Foundation to provide researchers with rapid, affordable, shared access to advanced nanofabrication tools and associated expertise. Projects can be accomplished either hands-on or remotely. Hundreds of engineers and scientists nationwide, from academia, industry, and government, utilize CNF to make structures and systems from the nanometer to the centimeter scale. CNF offers unique capabilities in world-leading electron-beam lithography, advanced stepper photolithography, soft lithography, and rapid prototype development, along with the ability to deposit, grow, and etch a very wide variety of materials. CNF’s technical staff are dedicated full-time to user support, providing one-on-one help with process development, training, and troubleshooting. They can offer expertise for a wide range of fabrication projects, including not just electronics but also nanophotonics, magnetics, MEMS, thermal and energy systems, electrochemical devices, fluidics, and the life sciences. More than 30% of CNF’s users come from biology/bioengineering fields. All users are welcome; no experience in nanofabrication is necessary and a central part of CNF’s mission is to assist users from “non-traditional” fields seeking nanofabrication techniques for the first time. CNF’s user program is designed to provide the most rapid possible access (typically 2 weeks from first contact) with the lowest possible barriers to entry (users retain full control of their IP, with no entanglement by CNF or Cornell University). More than 85% of CNF’s external academic users come from institutions with their own local cleanroom facilities, but still they utilize CNF for advanced capabilities, staff expertise, or tool reliability not available locally.

This talk will explore the tools, services and advice available to CNF users, and show examples of ongoing work. We will also provide the latest details on the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI) program, a new NSF-sponsored network of shared facilities similar to CNF that is in the process of being organized at abstract submission.

We invite you to explore the CNF and NNCI and discuss ways we can help bring your research visions to fruition. CNF’s User Program Managers will at no cost provide detailed processing advice and cost estimates for potential new projects. The CNF technical staff also meets every Wednesday afternoon for conference calls where we welcome questions about any topic related to nanofabrication. Visit cnf.cornell.edu to contact us and get started.

The Molecular Foundry, a nanoscience research center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory provides communities of users with access to expert staff and leading-edge instrumentation to enable research on the nanoscale in a multidisciplinary, collaborative environment. Selected through an external peer-reviewed proposal process, users come from academic, industrial or national laboratories, both domestic and international, free of charge. Located in the Bay Area’s active academic environment and near Silicon Valley, research is organized into seven closely coupled facilities: Inorganic, Organic, and Biological facilities for synthesis, preparation, and assembly; Nanofabrication, for processing and integration; the National Center for Electron Microscopy and Imaging and Manipulation, for characterization; and Theory, for understanding and predicting material properties. In summarizing the Foundry program, a selection of recent results will be highlighted such as those using automated high-throughput synthesis of nanocrystals, 2d materials, metal-organic frameworks, and sequence-specific polymers; aberration-corrected electron microscopy and electron tomography of individual proteins; 20 nm resolution optical spectroscopy; synthesis and simulations of nano-hybrid thermoelectrics and electrode-electrolyte interfaces; and interfaces between inorganic nanoscale building blocks with living cells.

The Molecular Foundry is supported by the Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.

The mission of the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM) user facility at Argonne National Laboratory is to provide expertise, instrumentation, and infrastructure for interdisciplinary nanoscience and nanotechnology research by scientists and engineers from academia, industry, and government agencies. The Center's goal is to support and explore ways to create functional hybrid nanomaterials and to tailor nanoscale interactions for energy-related research and development programs. The CNM addresses grand challenges in energy and information conversion and transport, while furthering the Department of Energy (DOE) missions in energy generation, storage, and efficiency. Unique capabilities at CNM include a large clean room, expansive synthesis and nanofabrication resources, a hard x-ray nanoprobe at the Advanced Photon Source synchrotron, myriad scanning probes including low temperature, ultrahigh vacuum STMs, TEMs with in situ holders and chromatic aberration-correction, a 30 TFlop supercomputer, oxide MBE, and ultrafast optical probes. Another CNM asset includes outstanding staff with expertise in nanocrystal and nanoparticle synthesis, complex metal oxides, nanophotonics, plasmonics, scanning probe microscopy, nanofabrication, functional bio-inorganic hybrid nanomaterials, and theory, simulation and modeling. Core technological materials range from photocatalysts to graphene to nanocrystalline diamond. All of these capabilities and expertise are available to the international research community through peer-reviewed user proposals; access is free of charge for allocated non-proprietary research in the public domain. CNM is one of DOE's premier Nanoscale Science Research Centers serving as the basis for a national program encompassing new science, new tools, and new computing capabilities for research at the nanoscale (https://nsrcportal.sandia.gov). Recent staff and user research highlights will be presented, painting a picture of present and future nanoscience and nanotechnology at the CNM (www.anl.gov/cnm).

The Center for Nanoscale Materials, an Office of Science user facility, is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under contract no. DE-AC-02-06CH11357.

EMSL, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, is a Department of Energy user facility. EMSL's vision is to pioneer discoveries and effectively mobilize the scientific community to provide the molecular science foundation for the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research research priorities and our nation's critical biological, environmental and energy challenges. To accomplish this vision, EMSL science is focused in four areas: biosystem dynamics and design, atmospheric aerosol systems, terrestrial and subsurface ecosystems and energy materials and processes. Processes that occur at surfaces and interfaces are critical in each of these areas and EMSL provides a wide range of unique and state-of-the-art spectroscopy, microscopy, magnetic resonance and computational capabilities to advance the relevant sciences (www.emsl.pnnl.gov ).

Scientific discovery and technological innovation in environmental molecular sciences are facilitate by EMSL's integrated set of experimental and computational resources. Researchers are invited to apply for the opportunity to collaborate with recognized experts and use state-of-the-art instruments and facilities. Researchers use resources at EMSL for little or not cost if results are shared in open literature. The primary mode for obtaining access to EMSL is through an annual call for proposals oriented around specific topics identified with each science theme. This call appears in late December, Four-page proposals are due in March. As a multi-capability facility, we seek proposal that combine scientific innovation through instrument integration combining computational and experimental approaches for discovery. Increasingly we are developing and using capabilities that enable real-time in situ measurements in a variety of environments.