Apr 10th 2017 – Lunch and Learn: SMIF and CHNAL Present Unique Capabilities

Come learn about unique capabilities that could aid in your research! Over lunch, Dr. Carrie Donley (director of the Chapel Hill Analytical and Nanofabrication Laboratory, CHANL) and Dr. Mark Walters (director of Duke’s Shared Materials Instrumentation Facility, SMIF) will highlight instrumentation at their respective facilities. The RTNN will provide free lunch to all attendees. Please RSVP here by April 6 to ensure we have the appropriate amount of food. This talk will take place at NC State’s Centennial Campus: Engineering Building I, Room 3018.

This will include discussions of:

  • Hot embosser to emboss a mold into a thermoplastic material with capabilities of embossing features on the micron and nanoscale.
  • Ion or electron beam assisted depositions in the dual beam focused ion beam (FIB) system
  • Ion and electron beam voltage contrast imaging on the dual beam FIB
  • Force curves on soft/sticky materials in solution with the atomic force microscope
  • “Bio Bay” for the integration of biomaterials with semiconducting, sensing, and photonic devices and systems
  • Microarrayer liquid array printer that can spot array picoliter scale drops onto a variety of substrates with high X-Y precision.  Ideal for ultra low volume liquid handling of various types of samples including biological, organic, nanoparticle, and dyes.
  • Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) with integrated electron beam evaporator – allows for combining ALD and ebeam evaporation without breaking vacuum
  • Electron beam lithography – resolution down to 10 nm on substrate sizes from small pieces to 6” wafers.   Overlay accuracy better than 30 nm and stitching accuracy better than 20 nm.
  • Cryo-TEM and Cryo sample preparation: allows TEM imaging of bio/nano samples in their natural hydrated state. Coming this fall – a new 300 keV Cryo-TEM system with 0.16 nm resolution.
  • X-Ray Computed Tomography Imaging (MicroCT) for generating 3D images of a sample’s interior and exterior.
  • Small Angle X-Ray Scattering for the determination of nanoscale structures of particle systems in terms of size, shape, distribution, and surface to volume ratio.  Ideal for determining biological (e.g., proteins) and polymer structures.
  • Micro-Strain Analyzer for the static and dynamic mechanical analysis of materials such as fibers, polymers, and elastomers