Nanotechnology Research Laboratories

The Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering aims to help turn North Carolina into a photon forest where research and development in photonics can create the kind of technological advance and economic growth found in California's Silicon Valley.

The graduate program is designed to address the need for an interdisciplinary graduate education at Duke in Nanoscience that extends beyond the traditional disciplines and skills that are taught within any existing department.

The Liu Laboratory at Duke University pursues research in the field of nanomaterials, synthesizing and studying materials with size of nanometers.

DYNASYNC, short for 'Dynamics in Nano-scale Materials Studied with Synchrotron Radiation', is a Framework Six project. Seven laboratories from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary and Poland collaborate in an ambitious specific targeted research project to address size-dependent quantum phenomena on nano-scale both theoretically and experimentally.

The Energy and Environmental Technology Applications Center (E2TAC) addresses the needs of advanced energy and environmental applications by leveraging the intellectual power base and state-of-the-art infrastructure at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) and making use of its extensive capabilities in microelectronics and nanotechnology.

The group exploits the properties of new nanomaterials; their unusual structural, optical, thermal, and electronic properties for future applications. Research in our group centers around nanowires since these offer an unprecedented level of flexibility and control. The versatility of their material composition allows envisioning new applications in chemistry, physics, engineering science and bioscience.

Bio/Nanoscience and Technology (BIONANO) focuses on the control of materials at the nanometer scale. It involves emerging technologies that enable scientists to address and position individual atoms and molecules. There is also the possibility to gain the ?Theoretical Physics for Technology? certificate intended for students with extra interest in the more theoretical and fundamental aspects of the chosen specialization.

This track approaches biomedical problems from a molecular perspective. Researchers simulate extant biological systems, so as to build upon them and for example develop new materials with new functions or properties. Another category of research involves decoding the molecular mechanisms behind diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob.

The group brings together researchers from these two fields and aims at establishing a coherent research program on the physics and chemistry of nanostructured materials and nano-sized organic and inorganic molecular systems.

Current research projects in the areas nanomagnetism, spintronics, and ultra-fast spin dynamics

The Institute joins together electrooptics and nanotechnology faculty from the Universities of Louisville and Kentucky, and affiliated researchers from the Illinois Institute of Technology, China and Russia.

The EMERGNANO project has been commissioned by Defra in the UK to capture and critically appraise the emerging evidence concerning the health and environmental risks of nanomaterials.

The lab investigates mechanical materials properties from the nano to macro-scale using experimental, analytical, and computational techniques. Current cutting edge research within European projects and the ETH competence center on high temperature materials focuses on micro- and nano- mechanical properties of materials (instrumentation, scale effects related to microstructure and physical dimension.

eNanoMapper (ENM) proposes a computational infrastructure for toxicological data management of engineered nanomaterials based on open standards, ontologies and an interoperable design to enable a more effective, integrated approach to European research in nanotechnology.

The ENPRA project is a major European Framework 7 project to develop and implement a novel integrated approach for engineered nanoparticle (ENP) risk assessment.

AMIC is an innovation center belonging to the Technological Innovation Network created by the Catalan Autonomous Government. AMIC offers key-in-hand solutions for environmental and industrial problems of the manufacturing sectors. AMIC also works on nanomaterials such as Ag, Au, Pt, Cu and Pd nanocubes and other morphologies.

The group develops ultra-sensitive spectroscopy and sensing technologies for real-time, label-free and high-throughput detection and analysis of very low quantities of biomolecules. They employ a variety of nanophotonic technologies including nanoplasmonics and metamaterials.

One of the areas of research deals with nanometric positioning.

Professor Forro's group at the Institute of Physics of Complex Matter

The activities of the laboratory aim at a detailed description of photo-induced processes in the molecular condensed phase (liquid, solid and proteins) and in metallic and semiconductor nanostructured materials. A central approach of the group is the visualization in 'real time' of the processes by means of ultrafast laser spectroscopy.

NANOLAB is working on various subjects in the field of silicon micro/nano-electronics with special emphasis on the technology, design and modelling of nanoscale solid-state devices (including Silicon-On-Insulator devices, few-electron devices, hybrid SET/CMOS, single electron memory, nanowires and nanotubes), Radio Frequency MEMS devices for in- and above-IC and integrated optoelectronic devices. The group is interested in exploring new materials, novel fabrication techniques, and novel device concepts for future nanoelectronic systems.

The group is working on nanoelectronics based on new, two-dimensional materials such as graphene and MoS2. These materials represent the ultimate limit of miniaturization in the vertical dimension and offer substantial advantages over nanotubes or nanowires.

The group develops and characterizes novel nanostructured materials for solar energy applications. The nanocomposite coatings consist typically of dielectric, semiconductor or metal nanocrystals embedded in a dielectric matrix. Applications include antireflection coatings on solar collector glazing, colored coatings with high solar transmittance for novel glazing of solar thermal facades, photoluminescent quantum dot solar concentrators for photovoltaic energy conversion, and optical selective absorber coatings for thermal solar collectors and thermoelectric power generation.

SuNMIL is a vibrant group of researchers that combine multiple backgrounds and integrate various disciplines to create and investigate novel materials that tackle the experimental investigation of supramolecular interfaces.

The Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Laboratory was created in 1982 by professor Nico F. de Rooij. Since then, SAMLAB has increased in size and has reached a staff of about 50 persons, including 15 PhD students.