Pacific Centre for Advanced Materials and Microstructures (PCAMM) Annual Meeting 2010 (LINK)
This year, the 15th Annual Meeting of the Pacific Center for Advanced Materials (PCAMM) will be held at the Univeristy of British Columbia (Fred Kaiser Electrical Engineering Building, Room 2020) on Saturday, December 11th (add to your calendar). The meeting is organized by J. Young, A. Nojeh, and L. Chrostowski, and sponsored by Systems for Research (SFR), and Kurt J. Lesker Canada.
Schedule
Invited Speakers - Session 1: 10:30
Reinhard Jetter, Philip Wong, Ken Wong, Keith Mitchell (UBC) Plenary talk
"CBiC - The Centre for BioInterface Characterization at UBC"
Throughout nature, unique and interesting reactions occur at the interfaces between materials. Macromolecular and cellular surfaces have particular importance in a wide range of natural recognition phenomena that must be understood in order to control or mimic such events. With the help of a CFI grant, we are establishing the Centre for Biointerface Characterization (CBiC) in AMPEL at UBC for the explicit purpose of providing an understanding of these interactions. To this end, the chemical compounds exposed at the surfaces will be mapped with high resolution, with new equipment including a biocompatible XPS, a ToF-SIMS, UV-Raman and Tip-enhanced Raman Spectrometers. On the other hand, the mechanical properties of the model surfaces must be determined using a combined Total Internal Reflection fluorescence microscope and AFM, a Nanofibre tensile testing apparatus, and a Multiaxial testing apparatus. We have selected a broad set of representative biomaterials as models for an inaugural set of investigations, focusing on plant surface lipid films, cell wall carbohydrate fibres, protein fibres, conjugated polymer fibres, lipid polymer surfaces of drug delivery systems, and polymer films lining blood storage bags. In this talk, I will illustrate our approach with preliminary results of ToF-SIMS characterizations of plant surfaces. Ash Parameswaran (School of Engineering Science, SFU) PMMA Microfluidics Traditional microfluidics technology which relied on glass as the substrate has now steered toward plastics which gives several fold advantage in terms of manufacturing and functionality particularly in the field of medical diagnostic instrumentation. The talk I will outline the PMMA-based microfluidics technology in detail. Examples of applications in the area of pathogen detection will be highlighted. Karen L. Kavanagh (SFU) "Spin injection, Nanowire Dislocations, and Nanocontacts" We have been investigating epitaxial growth of metals and semiconductors on surfaces and nanowires. This talk will describe the latest highlights of our results on spin contacts (electrodeposited Fe/GaAs), strain relaxation in heterowires (InAs-GaAs core-shell), and nanocontact formation (electrodeposited GaAs nanowire contacts) .
Session 2: 1:30
Kenichi Takahata, (Electrical and Computer Engineering, UBC) "Microdevices enabled by nontraditional materials and micromachining" We are investigating MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) with novel functionalities and high performance realized by the integration of nontraditional functional materials toward biomedical and other applications. For this purpose, we are also developing micro fabrication and packaging techniques that enable the integration. I will present our recent research results in these aspects, including those for hydrogel-based sensors and actuators, bulk-micromachined shape-memory-alloy microactuators, and 3-D patterning of carbon-nanotube forests, as well as their applications such as implantable drug delivery devices and wireless microgrippers. Guangrui (Maggie) Xia, Materials Engineering, University of British Columbia SiGe for Next-Generation Semiconductors: Potential, Process Physics and Integration with Photonics
Since 1980's, SiGe research have been growing steadily for electronic and optoelectronic applications. As a result, SiGe based heterojunction bipolar transistors and CMOS have been successfully commercialized. They have much better carrier transport properties than traditional Si. At the same time, they are significantly more economical for large scale production compared to III-V semiconductors. However, s-Si/SiGe systems are not as robust as traditional single crystalline Si during processing, and the process physics of Si/SiGe system is of great technical significance. SiGe and Ge also play important roles in optical devices, especially in the integration of III-V integration with Si platforms. This talk discusses the potential and research progress on the process physics of Si/SiGe systems, including dopant diffusion in SiGe, Si-Ge interdiffusion under stress and Ge in III-V integration on Si platforms.
Amy Liu, Lumerical Solutions, Inc. "Computationally-Efficient Optimization of Nanophotonic Devices with FDTD Solutions" Nano-scale manufacturing is revolutionizing photonics by providing unprecedented opportunities to transform research of exciting optical phenomena into innovative new applications. This creates a major design challenge because new devices have highly complex geometries, involving hybrid and dispersive materials, which makes it difficult to transform cutting edge theories into practice in a timely and cost-effective manner. In order to remain competitive within this highly dynamic field, extremely efficient simulation tools must be used to facilitate rapid innovation and shorten the research and development cycle. Throughout this presentation, we will discuss how Lumerical Solutions* rises to this challenge by providing computationally-efficient optimization of nanophotonic devices with our proprietary conformal mesh technology.
Session 3: 3:30
Frank van Veggel, Chemistry Department, University of Victoria "Lead-based quantum dots; synthesis, characterisation, and applications in the near-infrared" I will describe our recent results on colloidal lead chalcogenide based quantum structures (i.e. dots, rods, and crosses). With respect to the optical properties we have an emphasis on the near-infrared, roughly from 700 to 1700 nm in our case. This includes the biological window between 700 and 1100 nm, where tissue is more transparent, thus providing an opportunity for deep tissue imaging, and the telecommunication window between 1200 and 1700 nm.Beside their synthesis and potential applications, I will describe in detail their (optical) characterisation. For instance we have used energy-dependent X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy (XPS) at the CLS to provide the first concrete evidence for NaYF4-NaGdF4 core-shell nanoparticles and core-shell PbSe-CdSe quantum dots. Very recently, we have used scanning electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) to provide further insight into the shell formation of both the Ln3+-based nanoparticles and the core-shell quantum dots; some are and some are not true core-shell structures. In case of the lead chalcogenides I will present a simple yet accurate model of the temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) of oleate-stabilized PbSe quantum dots. In addition, quantum rods and quantum crosses will be presented that exhibit some unprecedented time-resolved luminescence anisotropy. Frank K. Ko, Materials Engineering, University of British Columbia Multifunctional Composite Nanofibres Nanomaterials in 0-D, 1-D, and 2-D geometry such as quantum-dots, carbon nanotubes and nanoclay/graphene have been used effectively as coating and fillers for many products to achieve nanoscale effects. Examples of these nanoeffects include the stain free textiles utilizing the lotus effect and the nanoclay composite for improvement of strength and fire retardancy of automotive components. In order to amplify the nanoscale effect and provide a means to carry the nanoscale effect to macrostructures, the nanoparticles were incorporated in a nanofibre to form nanocomposite fibrils and yarns. This was carried out by a co-electrospinning process wherein nanocomposite fibrils were spun from a spinning dope consisting of a mixture of nanoparticles and polymer solution. The thermal, mechanical, biological, electrical, optical and magnetic properties of these nanocomposite systems were characterized. The multiphase fibrils and fibrillar assemblies not only manifests the nanoscale effects inherent to the individual nanocomponents but also facilitate processing and translation of the nanoscale effects to macroscopic structures. In this presentation the processing, structure and properties of nanocomposite fibrils consisting of nanomagnetic nanofillers are presented. The implication of the availability of these nanostructured materials and their translation into higher order structures for various advanced applications will be discussed. Simon Watkins, Omid Salehzadeh, Department of Physics, Simon Fraser University "Control of III-V nanowire morphology by precursor chemistry" We report the growth of GaAs and InAs nanowires by the vapour-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanism using gold nanoparticles. Vapour phase growth is achieved using metalorganic chemical vapour deposition.
We show that precursor chemistry can have surprising effects on the shape, growth rate and crystal structure of these nanowires. By employing group III precursors with different organometallic ligands, e.g. ethyl vs. methyl we can control whether the wires grow axially or radially. Wires grown with low temperature ethyl based precursors exhibit high lateral growth which results in strong tapering due to a competition between VLS (axial) growth and planar growth. By using methyl-based group III precursors which decompose at higher temperatures, we suppress the lateral growth and achieve highly parallel nontapered wires with negligible stacking faults. This enables the fabrication of core shell heterostructures at a fixed growth temperature. We also report the use of carbon doping to achieve n-core/p-shell structures which are the protypes for a variety of device applications.
Registration / Call for Papers
Please submit a poster abstract. Please include: Title, Authors, Affiliations, and a 200 word abstract.
The deadline for submissions is December 3rd, 2010.
Topics: area related to advanced materials, microstructures, and devices. Including: semiconductors, industrial materials and devices, organic materials, surface characterization, biosensors, optoelectronics, magnets, superconductors, microfluidics.
About PCAMM
The Pacific Centre for Advanced Materials and Microstructures (PCAMM) brings together world-class expertise and sophisticated materials research infrastructure at Simon Fraser University (SFU), at the University of British Columbia (UBC), and at the University of Victoria. The depth and breadth of materials scientists in the Vancouver area led to the formation of PCAMM in 1995. This collaborative venture seeks to ensure that developments in materials growth, fabrication, and characterization at the three universities are optimized both in terms of people and resources for the entire region. Exceptional research outcomes are achieved through collaboration among research groups with complementary expertise; this philosophy, which is common in industry and government, has been adopted within PCAMM. PCAMM is currently based on seven complementary laboratories whose directors are committed to maintaining the equipment at the highest levels, both for their own individual research programs and for the research of others. In this way, PCAMM creates a unique centre for materials research that is internationally competitive and capable of addressing some of the most important contemporary materials research issues. More details can be found on the PCAMM web page
