IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Description of the Instrument: The project is for the acquisition of a Raith e-line electron beam lithography system, which is capable of defining feature sizes < 20 nm over large areas (4”x4”). The instrument is also capable of doing stitchless lithography of very narrow channels over long distances, such as may be needed for optical waveguides, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), plasmonic devices and long nanochannels for biological and neural regrowth research. The instrument is a turn-key instrument and will be housed alongside other lithography instruments in a Class 100 clean room laboratory at Iowa State University, but will also be available to researchers from the University of Iowa. Thus, researchers from both of Iowa’s research universities will benefit. Type of Research to be Performed: We have very active research programs in physical and biological sciences and engineering. These include photonic materials and devices, including photonic bandgap materials, negative index materials (metamaterials), photonic waveguides and filters, plasmonic devices, solar energy conversion materials and devices, organic LEDs, infrared detectors and lasers, etc., on the physical science side, and biological sensors, neuron regrowth, stem cell studies, drug delivery systems etc. on the biological science side. Our current fabrication facilities are limited to ~ 1 µm resolution, a range which makes it impossible to fabricate efficient optical devices based on metamaterials in the visible range, or to enhance solar conversion efficiency in thin film solar cells by using advanced photonic concepts, or to make plasmonic waveguides in the optical range, all of which require tens of nanometer type resolutions. Stem cell research also requires nanometer definitions of substrates for stem cell regrowth. The acquisition of this instrument will allow us to perform research in all these areas, something we cannot do at the present. Intellectual merit: Intellectual merit consists of ability to study advanced solar energy conversion devices with significantly higher conversion efficiencies, fabricate plasmonic and photonic waveguides for optical communications, study metamaterials and photonic bandgap devices in the visible range and combine OLEDs with them, grow stem cells on specific locations for in vitro studies, study neural regrowth, make nanochannels for bio-sensor applications, make novel infrared detectors and lasers for detecting minute amounts of pollutants and toxic gases, be able to make organic TFT devices, etc. These are all new important areas of research which we cannot presently do very well because of the lack of a suitable instrument. Note that many of the projects are interdisciplinary in nature, involving physicists, chemists, engineers, biologists, and as such will broaden the intellectual horizons of both engineers and biologists. Broad Impact: The broad impact of the acquisition of this instrument will lie in education and training of postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduate students in new research fields, and in being able to make very small scale devices, a skill that will be very useful for their careers and for US science & technology. There will be a significant integration of research and teaching since we will be using the instrument to add lab modules to existing and planned lab-oriented classes that we teach at Iowa State. The impact on the economy of improving the conversion efficiency of solar cells, or being able to make efficient photonic waveguides in the visible range, of making better biosensors, and of being able to more precisely tailor the growth of stem cells is likely to be quite significant.

Clarification of Codes