The overall objective of this 3-year project is to develop a CMOS-compatible industrial process for the fabrication of field effect transistors based on carbon nanotubes (CNT-FETs). In order to solve the CNT manipulation and placement problems, two approaches based on template growth in engineered porous structures will be investigated. In the first one, CNTs will be grown inside porous alumina templates obtained by anodic oxidation of Al films. The originality of the method is that the pores are synthesised parallel to the surface of the substrate (instead of perpendicular as usual) which will greatly ease the contacting operations for the source, drain and gate electrodes of the CNT-FETs with large numbers of CNTs connected in parallel. In the second approach, CNTs will be grown in vertical pore structures obtained by nanolithography and reactive ion etching. In both cases, the catalyst particles (necessary for the nucleation and growth of CNTs at low to medium temperature) will be electrodeposited at the bottom of the pores prior to chemical vapour deposition growth of the CNTs. As the catalyst particles are confined inside the pores, high temperature surface diffusion is prevented during (or before) growth and the nanometric size of the particles is preserved, leading to uniform CNT diameters. Moreover, by using monocrystalline films or substrates at the bottom of the pores, we propose to deposit the catalyst particles in an epitaxial-type mode, which will lead to a perfectly controlled structure likely to induce chirality control for the CNTs. This point is of paramount importance for the future of CNT-based electronics. The project brings together 4 European partners with complementary skills, from 3 different countries. If the proposed approach is successful, only Europe would have the critical size to set up new standards and industrial practices for CNT-based electronics. It is therefore essential that such research is carried out at European level.

Recently, a new ceramic material, i.e. calcium copper titanate, CaCu3Ti4O12, (CCTO) showed a radically new property, i.e. an impressive dielectric constant k=105 at 1 MHz, which is nearly constant over a wide temperature range (100-400K). We propose to fabricate high capacity density condensers (>500 nF/mm2) for development of a new integrated electronics. It has a huge economic impact (the potential market is billions US$). Many attempts beyond the state of the art are proposed. A nanodescription of the material will be achieved by developing nanocharacterization for a knowledge based activity oriented to material improvement. Pure CCTO bulk properties will be firstly optimized by strongly reducing impurities and anomalies, and then they will be improved beyond the state of the art investigating doped CCTO. We expected that a certain kind of phase composite Ca1+xCu3-xTi4O12 (x=0-3) could decrease the dissipation factor. This activity will produce targets of pure CCTO (first) and then doped CCTO for physical deposition such as laser ablation and sputtering that will be further developed during the project by using novel approaches based on multicomponent deposition. Metal organic chemical vapor deposition development activity guarantees the required high step coverage for use in 3D structures. As a breakthrough, new equipment will be developed within the project for laser assisted Chemical Beam Epitaxy (CBE), which uses a laser to change in situ during the deposition the CCTO composition. The advantage of this approach is the easily scalability to large surfaces for industrial processes. A specific silicon processing (high temperature resistant metal gates, etching,...) will be developed to integrate CCTO deposition in the silicon technology and produce high density planar (2D) capacitive condensers (>500 nF/mm2) working up to 4 GHz. The implementation of 3D structures will allow achieving results that are even more ambitious.

COLDNANO (UltraCOLD ion and electron beams for NANOscience), aspires to build novel ion and electron sources with superior performance in terms of brightness, energy spread and minimum achievable spot size. Such monochromatic, spatially focused and well controlled electron and ion beams are expected to open many research possibilities in material sciences, in surface investigations (imaging, lithography) and in semiconductor diagnostics. The proposed project intends to develop sources with the best beam quality ever produced and to assess them in some advanced surface science research domains. Laterally, I will develop expertise exchange with one Small and Medium Enterprise who will exploit industrial prototypes. The novel concept is to create ion and electron sources using advanced laser cooling techniques combined with the particular ionization properties of cold atoms. It would then be first time that 'laser cooling' would lead to a real industrial development. A cesium magneto-optical trap will first be used. The atoms will then be excited by lasers and ionized in order to provide the electron source. The specific extraction optics for the electrons will be developed. This source will be compact and portable to be used for several applications such as Low Energy Electron Microscopy, functionalization of semi-conducting surfaces or high resolution Electron Energy Loss Spectrometry by coupling to a Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope. Based on the knowledge developed with the first experiment, a second ambitious xenon dual ion and electron beam machine will then be realized and used to study the scattering of ion and electron at low energy. Finally, I present a very innovative scheme to control the time, position and velocity of individual particles in the beams. Such a machine providing ions or electrons on demand would open the way for the 'ultimate' resolution in time and space for surface analysis, lithography, microscopy or implantation.

Control of matter via light has always fascinated humankind; not surprisingly, laser patterning of materials is as old as the history of the laser. However, this approach has suffered to date from a stubborn lack of long-range order. We have recently discovered a method for regulating self-organised formation of metal-oxide nanostructures at high speed via non-local feedback, thereby achieving unprecedented levels of uniformity over indefinitely large areas by simply scanning the laser beam over the surface.

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.

Space system vendors seek for solutions to deliver small size and cost-effective sensor systems to 'de-congest' satellite payloads, drastically reduce the equipment cost and open the possibility for new generation of micro-payload systems. MERMIG aims to provide this technology replacing current expensive, bulky, heavy and power-consuming fiber optic gyroscopes (FOGs). To address these key challenges, MERMIG invests in the right mix of silicon photonic CMOS-compatible component fabrication and nano-imprint lithography laser fabrication. Both technologies are being adopted by the terrestrial telecom market and MERMIG will develop them for bringing their unique advantages into space sensor systems. MERMIG will squeeze the bulky FOG into a couple of cm2, integrating a racetrack cavity, pin junctions and a phase decoder into compact sub-micron waveguides. The MERMIG 'smart' packaging technique will allow power-efficient optical pumping and hermetic packaging of the gyro-photonic chip. MERMIG will develop the first 1550nm high-power laser with a fiber-coupled power of 150mW using an integrated laser MOPA, fabricated with advanced nano-imprint lithography (NIL). The 150mW delivered will enable a modular architecture, with pump sharing among 3 integrated silicon lasing cavities, for 3-axis sensing. The single-step NIL process enables fast wafer scale patterning and ensures low-cost and high-volume laser production. Finally, MERMIG will bring together photonics and electronics on a fully-functional opto-electronic gyroscope system prototype characterized according to ASTRIUM testplan procedures. MERMIG will deliver to ASTRIUM a new generation gyroscope that will weigh <1kg, consume <5W electrical power in a few cm3 footprint. The angle random walk range that will be feasible within MERMIG is 0.1 -0.01 deg/sqrt(hr) suitable for telecommunications and scientific satellites. The technology full potential can allow for future opto-electronic integration of photonic 'gyroscopes-on-a-chip'.

The detection of chemical or biological substances increasingly appears as an essential concern in order to prevent human or animal health and security related problems. Present analytical techniques are expensive and often require highly specialized staff and infrastructures. The principal need is to perform screening tests, which can be carried out in non-specialized infrastructures, e.g. Point of Care, schools and field, before unambiguous identification in a specialized laboratory. There is thus a need to develop a new detection system that has low-cost and is portable but at the same time offers high sensitivity, selectivity and multi-analyte detection from a sample containing various components (e.g. blood, serum, saliva, etc.). The objective of P3SENS is to design, fabricate and validate a multichannel (50 or more) polymer photonic crystal based label-free disposable biosensor allowing for a 'positive/negative' detection scheme of ultra small concentrations of analytes in solution (< 1 ng/mL). The biosensor will be encapsulated in a specifically designed microfluidic system in order to deliver the sample to the multiple sensing zones. The design of the biochip will allow it to be easily inserted in a compact measurement platform, usable by non-specialized practitioners outside of specialized laboratories for carrying simultaneous multi-analyte detection, delivering real-time monitoring, and with an assay duration that will not exceed a few tens of minutes. The photonic chip proposed in this project will be based on polymer Photonic Crystal (PhC) micro-cavities coupled into a planar waveguide optical distribution circuit. The photonic chip will be fabricated with available fabrication technologies - and with an emphasis on low cost substrates (polymer) and fabrication processes (nano-imprint lithography). More generally, P3SENS will push forward the development of low cost disposable biochips based on photonics.

The objective of this project is to provide access funding for scientists from European institutes who wish to perform part of their research at the Braun Center for Sub Micron Research (WISSMC) at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Under this project European scientists the will have the opportunity to visit the Braun Center, which is among the very few laboratories in the world, and particularly in Europe, which are self-sufficient in terms of the integration of 'state of the art' growth-fabrication facilities and measurement-evaluation equipment. The visitors under this program will be exposed to the very high quality research carried out at the WISSMC in the fields of mesoscopic physics and nano-physics. The transnational access will be provided as specified in section 6 of this Annex. The visiting scientists will be able to study complex semiconductor structures and devices. This will include high purity III-V semiconductor structures grown by molecular beam Epitaxy, miniaturization by optical lithography or electron beam writing and other processing and evaluation tools. The visiting scientists will interact strongly with two groups: excellent theoreticians and experimentalists, all working in strong collaboration under one roof and in this rather focused areas of research. The project will provide new opportunities for EU students to broaden their experience and knowledge in state of the art mesoscopic physics. It will allow graduate students to pursue new opportunities such as post doc positions in the field of mesoscopic physics. EU senior scientists will be able to strengthen their scientific ties with leading scientists at the Weizmann Institute. The project will enhance an extended flow of scientists between Europe and the Weizmann Institute and will thus induce fruitful scientific collaborations. It will help establish new research/technology collaborations with scientists across Europe.

The atomic force microscope (AFM) has become a standard and wide spread instrument for characterizing nanoscale devices and can be found in most of today's research and development areas. The NanoBits project provides exchangeable and customizable scanning probe tips that can be attached to standard AFM cantilevers offering an unprecedented freedom in adapting the shape and size of the tips to the surface topology of the specific application. NanoBits themselves are 2-4 μm long and 120-150 nm thin flakes of heterogeneous materials fabricated in different approaches. These novel tips will allow for characterizing three dimensional high-aspect ratio and sidewall structures of critical dimensions such as nanooptical photonic components and semiconductor architectures which is a bottle-neck in reaching more efficient manufacturing techniques. It is thus an enabling approach for almost all future nanoscale applications. A miniaturized robotic microsystem combining innovative nanosensors and actuators will be used to explore new strategies of micro-nano-integration in order to realize a quick exchange of NanoBits. For the fabrication of the NanoBits, two different techniques are proposed. On the one hand, a standard silicon processing technique enables batch fabrication of various NanoBits designs defined by electron beam lithography. On the other hand, focused ion beam milling can be used to structure a blank of heterogeneous materials, the socalled nembranes. Novel scanning modes in atomic force microscopy will be developed to take full advantage of the different NanoBits geometries and to realize AFM imaging of critical dimension structures. The innovative nanoimaging capabilities will be applied to characterize and develop novel nanooptical photonic structures in the wavelength or even sub-wavelength range and TERS applications in the nanomaterial and biomedical sector. Especially the involved SMEs will exploit and disseminate the results to potential users to realize a more efficient micro-and nanomanufacturing.

I plan to grow nanometre-sized crystals in confined geometries to examine the strain distributions that result. The crystal growth will employ lithographic processing techniques, made possible by the local expertise in the central clean room facilities of the London Centre for Nanotechnology. My group is world-leading in developing a method called Coherent X-ray Diffraction (CXD). Our CXD strain images of a Pb nanocrystal were published in Nature in 2006. CXD is sensitive to strain because the X-ray diffraction pattern surrounding a Bragg peak can be decomposed into symmetric and antisymmetric parts. To a good approximation, the symmetric part can be considered to come from the real part of the electron density, while the antisymmetric part is a projection of the strain field. The phasing of the data is a critical step that uses a computer algorithm, developed by us, which acts like the lens of a 3D X-ray microscope. CXD works best for nanocrystal sizes between 40nm and 5µm, for crystals strongly attached to substrates and for isolated, fiducialised arrays of crystals that can be cross-referenced with other techniques. To create nanocrystals in this size range, we will use both a bottom-up self-assembly of materials deposited onto templated substrates, designed to introduce strain, and a top-down nanosculpture approach will use lithography techniques to create strain patterns in crystalline materials associated with shapes that are carved into them. The interpretation of the images is the main intellectual output of the project. This will be compared with finite element analysis, and the deviations interpreted as unique properties attributable to the nanoscale. All project participants will work in a design, creation, analysis, interpretation, update cycle that will reveal the new basic principles of nanocrystal structure. In the long run we will transfer CXD technology to Europe: beamline I-13 at Diamond will be ready for CXD in 2011.