The principal objective of this grant is to develop via the Transfer of Knowledge Marie Curie Action a state of the art compact table top X-pinch device. The x-ray emission of the X-pinch generator will be in the range of 1-10 keV, the total x-ray power will be 1kW and will be investigated as a function of the pulsed current, the wire material and the material size. Emphasis will be given to investigate the physics of the formation of the dense hot plasma at the cross-point and the radiation transport. The self-generated magnetic field in the overdense region of the x-ray point source will be diagnosed using a novel technique based on the Faraday rotation of a probe laser pulse and the Cotton-Mouton effect on XUV harmonics generated by a femtosecond laser system. Applications of x-rays in science, industry and medicine will be explored. In particular, x-ray lithography for new semiconductor material research for nanotechnology purposes and x-ray radiography and microscopy of biological cells will be performed. The proposed work envisaged will provide excellent Transfer of Knowledge opportunities from world leading Universities and Research Centers (Imperial College, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, University of California) to a less favoured region (Crete) in need of developing new areas of competence and knowledge in the field of pulsed power technology and x-ray sources.

The project 'Development of Lithography Technology for Nanoscale Structuring of Materials Using Laser Beam Interference (DELILA)' focuses on researching and developing a new production technology for fabrication of nano structures and devices. In particular, DELILA will enable low cost and large volume production of surface structures and patterns with nanometric resolution. Industrial end-users are currently discouraged from expanding their nanotechnology-related business activities by either unacceptably high costs or the impossibility to control production processes on a nanometric scale. DELILA will play a key role in realising the full potential of laser interference lithography as current nanofabrication tools are limited to archaic, slow processing rates, or do not achieve a competitive cost-effective strategy. DELILA is driven by industrial needs to down-scale feature sizes to nano dimensions, lower fabrication costs and efficiently increase throughput, with the following industrial and scientific objectives: (1)Fundamental exploration of multiple beam interference lithography and its capabilities; (2)Development of computer software for the analysis of interference of several coherent beams of laser radiation and for the calculation of the results of diffraction of the radiation by periodic structures of different forms; (3) Development of DELILA system. The main outcome of the project will be a nano fabrication tool that has the potential to create a breakthrough in nanolithography technology for both 2D and 3D structuring of materials. It is the aim of DELILA to empower interference nanolithography technology with a clear focus on industrial use. The main advantageous features of the DELILA system in fabrication of nano structures and devices are high resolution (better than 40 nm) compared with other optical technologies, and low cost and high efficiency compared with other beam technologies.

The 'Development of low-cost technologies for the fabrication of high-performance telecommunication lasers' project has two main objectives: (1) Development of high-performance surface-grating-based DFB/DBR telecommunication lasers (2) Development of ultra-high speed directly modulated lasers (> 40 GBit/s) with a simplified multi-section design, which exploit high-order photonic resonances for extending the modulation bandwidth. The project approach is to develop a common technological fabrication platform for both types of lasers based on surface gratings and other surface micro- and nano-structures. One important advantage in using surface structuring for increasing the performances and functionality of edge-emitting lasers is the elimination of the regrowth stage, which adds to the fabrication cost, affects the laser performances (notably the reliability and the characteristics shift in time) and reduces yield. The surface micro- and nano-structures will be imprinted by the low-cost and high-yield nanoimprint lithography, which will contribute to reducing the fabrication cost. The developed surface-oriented technology will be largely independent on the underlying semiconductor structure and will be applied for the fabrication of InP- and GaAs-based edge-emitting lasers (EELs) working in the 1300 and 1550 nm ranges. Although advanced materials (like dilute nitrides and antimony-containing dilute-nitrides) as well as low-dimensional structures (quantum dots and quantum dashes) will be investigated for developing the active regions of the lasers, the surface-oriented technology will be directly applicable to epitaxial layer structures already developed and tested in regular Fabry-Perot telecommunication EELs. Thus the developed surface-oriented approach will have the unique advantage of enabling the fabrication of higher-performance lasers from already tested and qualified 'legacy' epiwafers.

The goal of the proposed research is the evaluation of an entirely new path to fabricate strained Si nano-devices which are compatible to Si CMOS processing. The idea is to fabricate field effect transistors from strained Si bridges, which have been manufactured by disposing embedded, sacrificial Ge islands (dots). To achieve the required positioning of the Ge dots, templated self assembling will be explored. This approach promises high speed electronics, due to the large mobility of carriers in strained Si, substantially reduced short channel effects, since the thickness of the channel is defined by an air bridge, and an improved thermal conductivity, which is attributed to the all Si device design. Alternative paths for the templated self assembly of Ge dots will be investigated, including e-beam lithography and x-ray interference lithography for the pre-pattern and molecular beam epitaxy as well as chemical vapour deposition for the growth of the ordered Ge islands. Care will be taken to analyse by grazing incidence x-ray diffractometry the strain and its uniformity in the Si bridges before and after removal of the Ge dots as well as after the fabrication of the gate stack. The actual devices will be processed using CMOS compatible Si device technology. The fabrication of the devices will be accompanied by intensive structural and electronic modelling. Special emphasis will be put on the strain distribution in the Si channel prior and after the removal of the dots and its impact on the electronic properties of the devices.To tackle this complex multi-faceted project experts in the field of crystal growth, structural and electronic analysis, device processing, modelling of crystal growth and device simulation will closely cooperate. As a result detailed insights into the correlation between structural and electronic properties in Si nano-electronic devices are expected as well as the successful fabrication of this new device - the disposable dot FET.

The superlative properties of diamond make it a choice material for making nanoscale devices over a broad range of applications. Diamond devices are conventionally made using 'top-down' processing following the seeding and growth of nanocrystalline diamond thin films, however, due to the great resilience of diamond, fabricating nanoscale devices is technologically demanding and nanoscale patterning requires expensive and lengthy processing such as electron beam lithography (EBL). Herein, the applicant presents a proposal to develop a novel, inexpensive, rapid and scalable methodology to fabricate nanoscale devices using 'bottom-up' processing with a feature resolution that will surpass current state-of-the-art processing techniques such as EBL. To achieve this goal, the technique of DNA Nanotechnology will be used to create self-assembled 2D DNA patterns of any desired shape, which will subsequently be electrostatically and covalently coated with nanodiamond and diamondoid particles. Following diamond seeding on DNA templates, the applicant proposes to grow nanocrystalline diamond thin film devices with nanoscale features. Given the diameter of DNA is ca. 2 nm, structures with nearly 2 nm feature resolution should be achievable, especially when seeding the structures with molecular diamondoid particles. Following development of said technique, nanoscale diamond devices (specifically nanophotonic structures, transistors and biosensors) will be fabricated that promise unprecedented performance.

Coherent extreme ultraviolet (XUV) light sources open up new opportunities for science and technology. Promising examples are attosecond metrology, spectroscopic and structural analysis of matter on a nanometer scale, high resolution XUV-microscopy and lithography. The most promising technique for table-top sources is femtosecond laser-driven high-harmonic generation (HHG) in gases. Unfortunately, their XUV photon flux is not sufficient for most applications. This is caused by the low average power of the kHz repetition rate driving lasers (<10 W) and the poor conversion efficiency (<10-6). Following the traditional path of increasing the power, numerous research teams are engineering larger and more complex femtosecond high-power amplifier systems, which are supposed to provide several kilowatts of average power in the next decade. However, it is questionable if such systems can easily serve as tool for further scientific studies with XUV light.

The growing importance of nanotechnology for the European Research Area is reflected in the FP6 Thematic Priorities. It is foreseen that most of the projects submitted to the Priority Area 3 (NMP) will need and develop nanopatterning techniques in one way or another. The Emerging Nanopatterning Methods (NaPa) consortium integrates the new patterning methods into one project, both anticipating and responding to the increasing need for technologies, standards and metrology required to harness the new application-relevant properties of engineered structures with nm-scale features. The NaPa consortium complements the deep UV technology by providing low-cost scalable processes and tools to cover the needs of nanopatterning from CMOS back-end processes through photonics to biotechnology. To achieve this, research in three technology strands is proposed: nanoimprint lithography, soft lithography & self-assembly and MEMS-based nanopatterning. While the former is at a crucial embryonic stage, requiring prompt consolidation to yield its first products in one or two years, the other two will result in applications towards the end of the project. Research in three overarching themes required by all strands: Materials, Tools and Simulation will be undertaken. NaPa brings together 35 leading academic and industrial European institutions with a vast amount of recent know-how on nanofabrication, partly developed within FP5. In total, 3500 person months will be contributed by the partners to the project. Complementing R&D, the consortium will design exciting nanoscience and nanoengineering courses to advance the training of the next generation of scientists and engineers and to create a positive attitude towards science among young people. Dissemination activities towards the lay public and sectors underrepresented in nanotechnology form an integral part in NaPa. Thus, NaPa offers a unique opportunity to unleash the potentials of #

The EAgLE project aims at establishing at the Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences (IFPAN) a leading multiprofile research Centre for designing and fabricating new materials, their characterization and testing under extreme experimental conditions. The Centre will identify and select novel materials, structures, phenomena, and computational protocols for functional new-concept nanodevices.

Nanostructured functional materials constitute one of the most dynamic and rapidly expanding fields in scienceand technology, which include their use in such diverse areas as materials technology, biotechnonology, energyand environmental technology, electronics, catalytic applications etc. From other side, the increasingly importantrole in biophysics and in life sciences is played by laser spectroscopie methods. The present project challengesone of the most exciting and phenomena rich sub-fields of nano-science and nano-technology (N&N): theinteraction of visible and near visible light with nanostructured materials. It is aimed at fabrication of optically-active synthetic nanostructures for the exploration of sensing mechanisms with biological matter.In the framework of the present project research activity is planned to be concentrated on, firstly, deliberatefabrication of optically-active substrate by means of state-of-the-art nanofabrication techniques (e-beamlithography, colloidal lithography etc.) and, secondly, exploration of obtained optically-active substrates forbiosensing applications. Utilizing shaped metallic nanostructures or arrays of metallic nanostrctures to influencethe fluorescence of biomolecules in close proximity to the surface is planned by tuning surface plasmonresonance energy of formed nanoarchitectures. Controlled positioning of macromolecular species on the pre-fomed nobel metal nanostructures to probe enhanced fluorescence or enhanced quenching, necessary for ultra-sensitive detection scheme, will be performed. Later goal constitutes a demostration of sensitivity of builtarchitectures to the binding events between preformed sensing platform and biomolecular species,complementary to those available in the fabricated synthetic bio-nanoarchitectures.Overall, the results of research activity are expected to contribute substantially in fundamental understanding ofsurface enhancement#

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.