The impact of biomineralization processes on lithographic and microelectronic production processes has not yet been explored. As opposed to conventional industrial manufacturing, the biological synthesis of silica occurs under mild physiological conditions of low temperatures and pressures, with clear advantages in terms of cost-effectiveness, parallel production, and impact on the environment. The integration of nature-mimic biomineralization processes with micro- and nanofabrication will be a unique route to make them usable in the medium-long term for industrial application and production. In particular, some peculiar proteins of sponges (silicateins) catalyze the reaction of silica polymerization to give ordered structures. Besides this catalytic activity, when the proteins are assembled into mesoscopic filaments, they serve as scaffolds that spatially direct the synthesis of polysiloxanes over the surface of the protein filaments. Hence, these biomolecules present the combined characteristics of: (i) chemical action (catalysis) for the formation of silica, and (ii) patterning action, by driving the silica on the surface of the filaments. We plan to exploit this unique combination within a novel technology, whose demonstrator will be the realization of patterned, aligned assembly of silica fibers, and their employment as insulating layers for prototype transistor devices. Two parallel strategies will be pursued for the production of large amounts of silicatein: (i) expression of the recombinant proteins, and (ii) development of in vitro primmorph cultures. Soft lithography techniques will be used for the controlled patterned deposition of molecules. Specific approaches will be designed and implemented, for the hierarchical assembly of silicatein fibers into functional networks. The multidisciplinary team involved in this project has the know-how in biosilicification/lithography and the intellectual property rights in enzymatic silica formation.

This proposal addresses new scientific challenges in spintrontronics, with the focus on the miniaturization of magnetic sensors. Bismuth crystals and graphene layers show anomalously high Fermi wave length and mean free path. This allows us the observation of electron confinement effects in the length scale of nano-lithography techniques. Both systems can be grown and processed on Si-based substrates, which paves the way for the integration with the existing semiconducting technology. Quantum transport properties are to be studied twofold: by means of intense magnetic fields in nano-patterned devices, and by means of scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS) at the surface level. In Bi epitaxial films and graphene flakes, Landau quantization grants access to the topology of the Fermi surface through magnetotransport measurements. The exceptional high-mobility of Bi and graphene gives rise to giant Hall and magnetoresistance effects (> 300,000 %), strongly influenced by structural parameters. Another consequence is the large spin-difussion length, which enables the transport of spin-polarized currents through large distances. Furthermore, the spin-split surface state of Bi crystals and graphene in contact with magnetic electrodes opens up the possibility of polarizing magnetically the medium and injecting spin-polarized currents. The purpose of STM studies here is to assess the influence of structural details at the atomic level on the macroscopic magnetotransport properties of Bi and graphene. STM in combination with pulsed field experiments will be used to investigate the loss of the 2-dimensional character of the electric transport as a function of the sample thickness. Both research lines are very appealing because of the enormous potential for practical device applications and the underlying Physics behind them.

I will systematically exploit the quantum properties in Group-IV Materials (GFMs) at the atomic scale, by using top-down patterning processes developed for Si technologies. Among GFMs, I will examine graphene, Si, and Ge nano-structures, since these materials are technologically important. More specifically, I will use our He-Ion-Microscope (HIM) milling techniques to fabricate nano-structures beyond the resolution limit of conventional lithography. This research will: 1. Characterize Freestanding Mono-layer or thin-layer of GFMs I will fabricate the freestanding device structure by HIM. The high-resolution of HIM will enable me to fabricate the graphene nano-ribbon as narrow as 5-nm. I will also examine the atomic structures of the device by Transmission-Electron-Microscope (TEM), and compare it with electrical measurements. The similar devices can be made for ultra-thin Si films. 2. In-situ formation and characterization of Si Quantum Dot (QD) I will characterize the Si Single-Electron-Transistor with a QD by in-situ monitoring in HIM. 3. Characterization of SiGe Fins I will characterize SiGe Fin for high performance electro-absorption optical modulator applications. Impacts of the projects to EU are expected as following ways: 1. I will contribute in the interdisciplinary research areas with my strong research background in theoretical physics, nano-electronics, and Si Photonics. 2. The long-term research activities to QIP will be continued for secure communication and massive commutation, beyond the limit of the classical computations. 3. I will transfer my research experience from Japan. Especially, the industrial experience in Hitachi is helpful for running the clean room managements. 4. I will explore the innovative opportunities for sustainable electronics, in which EU communities play the important contributions towards the matured smart society. 5. I would like to establish the various collaboration within EU and internationally.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) form the basis of most current nanotechnology research due to their unique and extreme properties including ballistic electron transport at room temperature, structure-dependent metallic/semiconductor behaviour, electromechanical properties and extremely high Young mudulus. Several important achievements have been realised in nanotubes electronics. However, a major hindrance for the emergence of real applications is the lack of control in fabricating these nanoscale devices. This project will develop new rational design methods for CNTs based electronic nanodevices. Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) will be employed to grow CNTs at the desired location by placing the catalyst dots where required by focused ion beam and e-beam lithography. We will combine Ni and Co colloids chemistry and e-beam lithography to obtain small catalyst dots suitable for the growth of single wall CNTs. The recently discovered mechanism of sequential catalytic growth will be used to control the direct insertion of CNTs with spin-polarised particles during their growth. Plasma enhanced CVD will be employed for growing CNTs on thermal-sensitive substrates. Nanotubes will be oriented by the application of an electric field and by lateral growth using growth barriers. The ballistic transport of nanotubes is presently accompanied by a large contact resistance, so that the overall conductance is much lower in practice than the expected theoretical conductance. In situ growth will enable direct connecting of the nanotubes and prevent damage and pollution induced by the usual suspension/deposition process. Individual CNT structure will be characterised by in situ AFM/Raman analyses to correlate growth conditions, structural and transport properties. By using these tools, we intend to develop direct and controlled design of CNT based interconnects, field emission transistors and spin-valve devices.

Superhigh energy ball milling with the help of novel laboratory and industrial planetary mills will be applied for the development of new materials and technologies based on particle size reduction and mechanical activation of particles. Fundamental aspects of mechanical activation of materials will be studied. Improved performance of new materials will be achieved by means of finding an optimal balance between the size effects and effects of mechanical activation of particles. The specific feature of the project is the use of the planetary mills characterized by dramatically higher energy density than conventional milling equipment. The main groups of materials studied in this project would be hard alloys, intermetallics and composites, sialons and multicomponent ceramic oxides. Processing studies will be carried out for developing technologies and materials for applications in various industrial fields. Optimisation studies of the processing procedures and materials performance evaluation in the industrial environment will follow. The aims of the project include development of technologies providing high-volume production of nanoscale materials at low cost and technologies of recycling of solid materials in a fast, efficient and environmentally friendly process. Technological developments will exploit novel industrial planetary mills of continuous mode. Applications of the approach in various fields of industry including manufacturing of cutting tools, production of special refractories, production of advanced ceramics, development of hard thin coatings, development of improved thermal spray coatings, will be investigated.

ACAPOLY is a partnership between micro resist technology GmbH and EPFL-LMIS1 whose main objective is the development of a new set of polymer materials for MEMS/NEMS technologies with an associated process library. The materials that the partnership has planned to develop are Ormocer and SU-8. The objective is to modify both materials in a way that they can be processed using Electron Beam Lithography, Direct Laser Writing, UV-Nano Imprint Lithography and Ink-Jet printing. The developed materials and process libraries will be used to fabricate UV-NIL stamps, large arrays of LEDs for automobiles and large arrays of optical waveguides.

Spintronics, in which both the spin and the charge of the electron are used, is one of the most exciting new disciplines to emerge from nanoscience. The 3SPIN project seeks to open a new research front within spintronics: namely 3-dimensional spintronics, in which magnetic nanostructures are formed into a 3-dimensional interacting network of unrivalled density and hence technological benefit. 3SPIN will explore early-stage science that could underpin 3-dimensional metallic spintronics. The thesis of the project is: that by careful control of the constituent nanostructure properties, a 3-dimensional medium can be created in which a large number of topological solitons can exist. Although hardly studied at all to date, these solitons should be stable at room temperature, extremely compact and easy to manipulate and propagate. This makes them potentially ideal candidates to form the basis of a new spintronics in which the soliton is the basic transport vector instead of electrical current. ¬3.5M of funding is requested to form a new team of 5 researchers who, over a period of 60 months, will perform computer simulations and experimental studies of solitons in 3-dimensional networks of magnetic nanostructures and develop a laboratory demonstrator 3-dimensional memory device using solitons to represent and store data. A high performance electron beam lithography system (cost 1M¬) will be purchased to allow state-of-the-art magnetic nanostructures to be fabricated with perfect control over their magnetic properties, thus allowing the ideal conditions for solitons to be created and controllably manipulated. Outputs from the project will be a complete understanding of the properties of these new objects and a road map charting the next steps for research in the field.

The main problem in nanotechnology is the lack of methods for mass production. This is especially true for SMEs, which do not have the ability to invest in expensive equipment for large-scale production of nanostructures. Nanoimprint lithography on the other hand provides a tool that is comparably cheap and suited for mass production. 3D NANOPRINT aims at the development of a complete process technology with the necessary tools to produce 3-dimensional nanostructures with ultra high precision. In comparison to deep or extreme ultra violet lithography (abbreviated as DUV and EUV lithography respectively) this research paves the way for the widespread use of a nanoscale production technology also by smaller companies, since the investment costs of nanoimprint production lines are less than 1% of the DUV or EUV investments. The project consist of two levels, a directly process oriented part dealing with nanoimprint lithography itself, nanoimprint resists, reactive ion etching and alignment problems and an application oriented part. In this part requirements for nanoimprint lithography as production tool are defined, assuring that the final result of the project is a cost effective, high throughput, ultra-precise tool for the production of 3 dimensional nanostructures. As a reference application 3-dimensional photonic crystals have been chosen, since the optical properties of such devices are extremely sensitive to the quality of the production process (therefore are excellent indicators) and assure a high economic impact since the photonics market is growing quickly. Other applications considered are micro- and nano-optical devices.

The objective of the proposal is the fabrication and study of three dimensional (3D) magnetic nanowires for ultra-high density information storage. Current memory architectures are 2D, composed of one layer of active components. The extension of data storage devices into the third dimension could result in information densities of hundreds of Gb/in2, causing a technological revolution. The project aims at implementing a 3D version of the existing 2D host institution’s idea of domain wall based shift registers to store data. In this scheme, the data bits are stored using the two possible directions of the magnetisation in thin and narrow nanowires made of soft ferromagnetic materials. The fabrication of the 3D devices will be done by using a novel promising nanolithography technique: focused electron beam induced deposition (FEBID), with unique capabilities for the creation of 3D nanostructures. We have recently demonstrated the required possibility to control domain walls in cobalt nanowires created by this technique. The patterning of magnetic nanostructures by means of conventional lithography, such as electron beam lithography and ion milling, will be explored in parallel. The control of the domain walls will be probed by magneto-optical magnetometry and magneto-electrical measurements. The two directions to be investigated for the creation of 3D magnetic devices will be the stacking of 2D magnetic nanowires, and the direct fabrication of 3D nanowires. The host group possesses patents protecting the ideas presented in this proposal. The success of the project would place the European Union in a privileged position to lead the next steps in the development of Information Technology.

One-atom thin two-dimensional nanomaterials possess unique properties different from their bulk counterparts. Initiated by the discovery of graphene, many stable one atom-thick layers such as boron nitride, molybdenum disulphide, tungsten disulphide etc., have been isolated and characterized. However, the individual properties of such 2D-atomic crystals (except graphene) were modest. The combination of isolated single atomic layers into designer structures, named as 2D-heterostrcutures, is predicted to give synergetic properties. In order to harness the interesting properties the combination of various 2D-atomic crystals have to offer, a method to assemble them in a simple and scalable way is required. Currently, the only method known is manual placing of the 2D-atomic crystal layers sequentially which limits the scope of the study of such structures. The objective of the proposal is to assemble layered (each layer is one atom thick) stacks of graphene superlattices and heterostructures with other 2D-atomic crystals such as BN, MoS2, WS2 etc., by deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)-mediated assembly. DNA mediated assembly is highly programmable by chemically specific interaction between nucleotides, length of the DNA, strength of the interactions in addition to the symmetry control of the assembled structures. Top-down lithography will be combined with bottom-up DNA assembly to fabricate seed layers of DNA for the guided assembly which lead to patterned heterostructures. This approach is targeted toward combinatorial screening of exotic properties of varied architectures of heterostructures with control over the composition of 2D-atomic crystals and spacing between the layers (controlled by DNA). The anticipated structures would be vertical atomic scale Legos of 2D-atomic crystal layers with DNA spacers.