Research in the Nanofabrication Facility

Being at the fore of the Molecular Foundry’s Single Digit Nano thrust, the Nanofabrication Facility aims to push ‘top-down’ fabrication from its current 10-15nm limit into the sub-10nm range. The chemistry and physics of lithography, etching and resist technology are studied intensively with this goal in mind.  Further, this facility’s staff is developing techniques for the integration of structures synthesized by ‘bottom-up’ organic, inorganic and bio synthetic methods with those fabricated in ‘top-down’ fashion. This research is a component of the Foundry’s Organic-Inorganic Interface study. A third aspect of this facility’s program is the development of functional lithographic materials—directly patterned materials that then serve as the functional material for an application. Such materials should simplify fabrication, enhance resolution and enable nanostructuring of materials unamenable to plasma etching and other pattern transfer methods.

The Nanofabrication Facility also has an active nanophotonics research program. One goal here, given the unique multidisciplinary environment provided by the Foundry, is to realize 3-D, 2-D and 1D nano-photonic structures of either hard or soft matter with optical responses from the ultraviolet to the infrared. Plasmonic nanophotonics is of particular interest to the facility’s scientific staff, with it numerous applications to imaging, information processing, data storage, and the precise detection, control and manipulation of nanoscale species, with application to both the biomedical and nanofabrication arenas. Within the field of nanoelectronics, the Foundry pursues new technologies that offer a significant reduction in energy consumption per operation.