Interdisciplinary Platforms Characterisation and Metrology
Characterising new nano materials, structures and devices is critical to the progress of the ICN2 Severo Ochoa programme. Work has focused on addressing challenges in dimensional, shape and chemical metrology that affect the reproducibility (and consequent commercial viability) of a nanodevice. The ICN2 has solid in-house expertise in this area, plus an extensive network rooted in numerous EU projects.
Work has begun on integrating the equipment available at three of the member research centres of the Barcelona Nanotechnology Cluster (BNC-b), namely the ICN2, ICMAB and ALBA. The cluster is already being used for the synthesis and characterisation of graphene quantum dots, nanoribbons and ferromagnetic/topological insulator interfaces.
The coupling of an ICN2 scanning tunnelling microscope with ALBA’s BOREAS beamline has led to new collaborations with key international players in the nano arena, including ETH Zurich, Elettra-CNR, Uni Wüzburg, Uni Padova, Nanogune, INA and IMDEA Nanociencia.
Using advanced microscopy methods, the ICN2 has created 3D atomic models from (S)TEM crystallographic data, to obtain the physical (electronic and optoelectronic) properties of different materials.
So far we have analysed many different material types, with a particular focus on semiconductor materials for application in energy, electronics and photonics.