The National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure site at Stanford University, nano@stanford, promotes nanoscience and engineering by making experimental resources and the know-how to use them available to all. At the core of nano@stanford are four advanced research facilities that are open for use by any researcher, from other universities, industry, or government: the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities (SNSF), the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility (SNF), the Stanford Microchemical Analysis Facility (MAF), and the Stanford Isotope and Geochemical Measurement and Analysis Facility (SIGMA). These facilities are staffed with technical experts dedicated to supporting the progress of science and together span the full range of fabrication and characterization methods to serve the broad user community. The site welcomes all disciplines; researchers use the facilities to solve real world problems in energy, environment, medicine, and beyond. The site also hosts artists and teachers, as its mission is to train and educate, not only the researchers in the facilities, but anyone anywhere wanting to learn about experimental nanoscience and technology. nano@stanford cultivates a library of just-in-time educational materials aimed at building foundational knowledge for the newest researchers and is available to everyone everywhere. nano@stanford has developed and will expand programs in workforce development, teacher training, and K-12 outreach. Through its partners in the NNCI network, nano@stanford will continue to expand these efforts to educate beyond the classroom and beyond the lab.
nano@stanford offers a comprehensive array of nanofabrication and nanocharacterization equipment and expertise, housed in facilities that encompass ~30,000 ft2 of lab space, including 16,000 ft2 of cleanrooms, 6,000 ft2 of which is low vibration. Fabrication capabilities are anchored by a full electronics device fabrication cleanroom and a nanopatterning laboratory that are supplemented by a dozen lab spaces providing specialized and flexible processing systems. Characterization capabilities encompass the full suite of tools for imaging and chemical/physical property identification of materials. nano@stanford offers advanced capabilities not normally available to the research community at large. These specialized capabilities include: MOCVD for growing crystalline films of III-V materials; Electron-Beam Lithography for wafers up to 200 mm; NanoSIMS for isotope analysis at high lateral resolution; scanning SQUID for high resolution mapping of surface magnetic fields. Experienced, technical staff support all researchers, who have used the facilities to develop and characterize advanced structures, such as photonic crystals, photodetectors, optical MEMS, inertial sensors, optical/electronic biosensors, cantilever probes, nano-FETs, new memories, batteries, and photovoltaics. nano@stanford welcomes researchers in non-traditional areas of science and engineering, such as the life sciences and medicine, earth and environmental sciences, and offers personal consultations, seed grants, fabrication and characterization services, seminars and webinars, to the nano-curious.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
