Archive for February, 2008

The Center for Electronic/Magnetic Nanoscale Composite Multifunctional Materials (ENCOMM) offers the IMR community access to a newly acquired FEI Helios NanoLab 600 Focused Ion Beam Mill/Scanning Electron Microscope (FIB/SEM) purchased with funds awarded through the Advanced Materials Targeted Investments in Excellence (TIE) program. The FIB has been commissioned and is available for use. Its capabilities include ion milling, high-resolution SEM, Pt deposition, e-beam lithography and X-ray microanalysis.

ENCOMM has a mission to create an environment in which multi-disciplinary teams can form and interact and to provide the infrastructure needed to conduct the research that will define this field. ENCOMM’s NanoSystems Laboratory (ENSL) offers a state-of-the-art facility to address cutting edge challenges in understanding and developing complex mulitcomponent materials. The facility features FEI Helios NanoLab 600 dual beam FIB/SEM with capabilities for e-beam lithography and X-ray microanalysis for materials characterization. Additional equipment available is a Langmuir-Blodgett trough, SQUID Magnetometer, Atomic Force Microscope, JEOL JSM-5400 Scanning Electron Microscope, and a photolithography lab. ENSL also includes 1500 ft2 of class 1000 clean room space.

The facility is open to both OSU and external users on a user fee basis. For further information, please visit the ENCOMM website or contact ENSL Manager Denis Pelekhov at dtt@mps.ohio-state.edu to arrange training for equipment use.

IMR announces the availability of new office space in its IMR West Campus office located in the Science Village building at 1318 Kinnear Road. IMR is making available over two dozen new office cubicles to IMR members and their research groups. These dedicated workspaces are fully-equipped cubicles with centralized printing, copying, fax and wireless internet services. The office suite also has a lounge area and a kitchen. We are pleased to offer these cubicles free of charge to IMR members and their staff and students on a first-come-first-served basis.

With the coming major equipment acquisitions added to the already significant facilities and resources available at Nanotech West Laboratory, this service is intended to further improve connectivity with West Campus research facilities. Office space at IMR West Campus is also available to industry users of Nanotech West equipment, on a monthly fee basis.

The suite is also the new home to two IMR Members of Technical Staff – Dr. John Carlin, a Research Scientist supporting PVIC and related research, and Senior Research Associate Aimee Bross, who continues to operate the Leica EBL system.

We invite you to tour the IMR West Campus office space and the laboratories available to OSU and industry researchers at Nanotech West. To inquire about availability of these dedicated workspaces or to schedule a tour, contact Layla Manganaro (manganaro.4@osu.edu or 247-4685).

To further improve connectivity between campus and Nanotech West Lab, the IMR also provides a free passenger shuttle with six round-trips each weekday. In the six months that IMR has offered this shuttle service, we’ve seen a significant demand with monthly ridership continuing to grow to over 120 passengers per month. We anticipate a marked increase in 2008 to coincide with the EBL system move and upcoming new equipment acquisitions at Nanotech West Laboratory.

Learn more about the IMR shuttle, the shuttle schedule, and Nanotech West Lab facilities.

On February 4, the Institute for Materials Research submitted a full proposal to the Ohio Department of Development Technology Division in response to its RFP for an Ohio Research Scholars Program (ORSP) in Advanced Materials.

The proposal, “Technology-Enabling and Emergent Materials,” requested a total of $35 million from the state to help fund eight endowed research scholar faculty positions. If this proposal is successful, the university will gain four of those endowed faculty positions in advanced materials in three colleges (Engineering, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences), allowing us to further strengthen our presence in the materials-allied research fields.

The proposal team included Steve Ringel, Jim Lee, Sharell Mikesell, Stephen Myers, Michael Mills, Prabir Dutta, and Layla Manganaro, with contributions from many other OSU faculty, staff, and administrators. The University of Dayton and University of Akron served as collaborating academic institutions, and 49 other collaborators represented industry, research centers, and associations throughout Ohio.

A public meeting will take place downtown on March 5th where state officials will discuss the 23 ORSP proposals. Awards should be announced by late May.

In 2007, IMR coordinated major proposal submissions from OSU to the National Science Foundation ERC, IGERT and MRSEC programs, and last month IMR provided coordination of OSU’s full proposal to the NSF MRSEC program.

• Photomodulation of Carbon Nanosponges Lead: Vish Subramaniam, Mechanical Engineering; Co-Applicant: R. Sooryakumar, Physics
• Fabrication of Essential Experimental Components for Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy (MRFM) Lead: Chris Hammel, Physics
• Enhance Program on Spintronic Phenomena in Organic-based Materials Lead: Arthur Epstein, Physics; Co-Applicants: Deniz Duman and Mark Murphey, Graduate Students
• Preparation and Characterization of Ultrasharp Tips for sub-10nm Resolution Optical Microscopy and Spectroscopy Lead: Jay Gupta, Physics; Co-Applicants: Arthur Epstein, Physics; Terry Gustafson, Chemistry
• Surface Acoustic Wave Sensor Development Lead: Erik Walton, ElectroScience Laboratory; Co-Applicant: Yakup Bayram, ElectroScience Laboratory
• Spin Transport in Semiconductor Nanowires Lead: Fengyuan Yang, Physics
• Fabrication of Si Microhotplate Arrays Lead: Patricia Morris, Materials Science and Engineering
• Facility Support for Chemical and Conformational Analysis of AlGaN Biosensors Lead: Leonard Brillson, Electrical and Computer Engineering; Co-Applicants: Wu Lu, Electrical and Computer Engineering; Stephen Lee, Biomedical Engineering
• Fabrication of Ultra-Dense Spin-Torque Oscillators (STOs) Lead: Ezekiel Johnston-Halperin, Physics; Co-Applicant: Fengyuan Yang, Physics
• nm-resolution studies of metal contacts to semiconducting nanowires Lead: Jonathan Pelz, Physics
• Lorentz-Force Based MEMS Device for Controllable Mechanical Loading on Single Cell Lead: Yi Zhao, Biomedical Engineering
• Measuring Cell Deformating Using Bioscope Dual AFM/fluorescence integrated miscroscope in the AFM Core of DHLRI Lead: Nicanor Moldovan, Internal Medicine and Biomedical Engineering
• Site Specific Stamping of Graphene Lead: Nitin Padture, Materials Science and Engineering; Co-Applicant: Wolfgang Windl, Materials Science and Engineering
• The Self-Assembly of Peptide-Dendron Hybrids Lead: Jon Parquette, Chemistry