MRSEC research steams ahead
MRSEC researchers continue to churn out exciting new results. To the left are several recent experimental results. The top image from Alain Portavoce shows a regular array of SiGe quantum dots at two different array spacings. The second image at left shows Alain's efforts to create a quantum cellular automata (QCA) circuit (similar to a proposed adder circuit) using focused ion beam (FIB) guided growth techniques. While we are not yet at the point of testing and confirming electronic behavior for these types of quantum dot patterns, the mere ability to generate such a pattern appears to be a significant step forward. The third image at left shows a similar result generated this summer by MRSEC graduate student Yingge Du, growing Cu₂O on SrTiO₃ (100).

In addition to these latest results, MRSEC researchers have generated a set of publications now appearing in the literature. A selection of the most recent include:

F. M. Ross, M. Kammler, M. C. Reuter and R. Hull, “In-situ Observations of Self-assembled Island Nucleation on Patterned Substrates,” Philos. Mag., 84(25-26), pp. 2687-2697 (2004).

A. M. Mintairov, K. Sun, J. L. Merz, C. Li, P. A. Blagnov, A. S. Vlasov, D. A. Vinokurov, O.V. Kovalenkov, V. Tokranov, and S. Oktyabrsky, “Nanoindentation and Near-Field Spectroscopy of Single Semiconductor Quantum Dots,” Phys. Rev. B, 69, pp. 155306:1-12 (2004).

A. J. Kubis, T. E. Vandervelde, J. C. Bean, D. N. Dunn, R. Hull, “Analysis of the Three-Dimensional Nanoscale Relationship of Ge Quantum Dots in a Si Matrix Using Focused Ion Beam Tomography,” Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. - Proc., 818, pp. M14.6.1-M14.6.7 (2004).

Y. Du, S. Atha, R. Hull, J. F. Groves, I. Lyubinetsky, D. R. Baer, “Focused Ion Beam Directed Self-assembly of Cu₂O Nanodots on SrTiO₃(100),” Appl. Phys. Lett., 84(25), pp. 5213-5215 (2004).

A. Portavoce, M. Kammler, R. Hull, M.C. Reuter, M. Copel, and F.M. Ross, “Growth Kinetics of Ge Islands During Ga Surfactant-mediated UHV-CVD on Si(001),” Phys. Rev. B., 70, pp. 195306:1-9 (2004).

Jack Hudson receives Electrochemical Society award
MRSEC faculty member Jack Hudson of Chemical Engineering is the 2004 recipient of the semi-annual William Blum Award of the National Capital Section of the Electrochemical Society. The award was announced in the spring and is given for "an original contribution to the science and/or technology of allied subjects with The Electrochemical Society." Jack was away at the time the award was announced, on sabbatical at the Fritz-Haber Institut. So, the award will be presented at a meeting of the Society on November 16 in Washington, D.C. Congratulations Jack!

New graduate students join the MRSEC team
At the start of the fall semester, the MRSEC had three new students join the program - Jeremy Graham, Jermaine Coleman, and Joe Maurer. Jeremy joins the Center from the University of Oklahoma where he earned his undergraduate degree in Engineering Physics. Jermaine joins the Center from Delaware State where he majored in Physics and Pre-Engineering. Joe joins the Center from Brown University where he earned his undergraduate Chemical Engineering degree. Jeremy and Jermaine will be working on projects supporting our new collaboration with the Nanometer Consortium at Lund University in Sweden, working with Robert Hull and Bill Johnson respectively. Joe will be taking over our electrochemistry work (with Jack Hudson) from Andy Trimmer who is currently hard at work on the writing of his Ph.D. dissertation. Welcome!

Juliet Trail joins team as Center Manager
In late August, Juliet Trail joined the Center for Nanoscopic Materials Design as its new Center Manager, taking over from Susan Stine. Juliet earned a B.S. degree from Guilford College (Greensboro, N.C.) where she majored in Biology and Music, with a minor in Psychology. More recently, she completed a Masters in Music at New Mexico State University (Las Cruces, N.M.). Juliet will be spending equal amounts of time supporting the educational initiatives of the Center and assisting in day-to-day managment of the entire Center. Welcome aboard!

MRSEC renewal proposal submitted
On September 8th, the Center submitted a renewal proposal to the National Science Foundation, requesting funds to continue Center activities from 2005 - 2011. The submission was actually a preproposal request for continued support of on-going semicondutor nanoelectronics work. The preproposal also added a similar-sized request for a second thrust of activity in the bio-nano realm. Just before Thanksgiving, NSF notified the Center that the preproposal had been accepted. Thus, a full proposal is now due in late January of 2005. Stay tuned...

MRSEC Team Produces Education Brochure for the National Program
In one of their first cooperative efforts, MRSEC Education Director Carolyn Vallas and Center Manager Juliet Trail have teamed together to create a new NSF MRSEC publication entitled "Emerging Education: An Education & Outreach Overview of NSF's Materials Research Science & Engineering Centers". This new publication, currently in its final editing stage, will provide a unique resource for MRSEC Directors, MRSEC Education Directors, and all others interested in the Educational Outreach components of each of the 29 MRSEC centers across the country. In this publication, each Center has a one-page synopsis of its current outreach activities, highlighting successes and a myriad of approaches to the growing field of educational outreach in materials science. This valuable publication will highlight the work of every Center, creating a stronger national movement of innovative education. The brochure is an outgrowth of the NSF MRSEC Education Directors meeting organized in Charlottesville last fall by Carolyn.

NSF hosts a special MRSEC evening program at the Fall MRS meeting
On Tuesday evening November 30th, the National Science Foundation will be hosting a special event at the Fall MRS meeting in Boston (7 p.m., Room 210 of the Hynes Convention Center). The event is intended to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the MRSEC program and will include talks by Dr. Lance Haworth (Executive Director of NSF's Division of Materials Research) and Chemistry Nobel Laureate Alan MacDiarmid. The evening will be capped off with a reception where all MRSEC's (including ours) will show off their finest discoveries in a joint poster session.

The Center's MSE 791 course, "Nanoscale Control of Thin Films and Surfaces", is underway
As many of us know through direct participation, the faculty of the Center have been teaching a graduate level course this semester that focuses upon the science and technology most pertinent to our community research endeavors associated with templated assembly. While many of the students in the class are MRSEC graduate researchers, there are a number of additional students enrolled who are adding to the intellectual community through their participation. In addition to lectures taught by UVA faculty, we have been able to utilize our distance learning infrastructure to bring in lectures from faculty team members Jim Merz and Greg Snider at Notre Dame. Thanks to everyone for making this new undertaking a sucess.

The Facility for Atomic-Scale Understanding of Nucleation and Assembly (FAUNA) begins to take shape
With the recent arrival of a scanning probe microscope from Omicron, Petra Reinke has been able to put into operation the first part of UVA's new Facility for Atomic-Scale Understanding of Nucleation and Assembly. Petra now has in her lab both the ultra high vacuum chamber and the installed scanning probe microscope. This is plenty of equipment to keep her and her students happy and busy for the time being. Within a few months, a new focused ion beam column should arrive, allowing our Center to begin new detailed atomic-level studies of how FIB templated assembly occurs. In addition to Petra's system, the National Science Foundation recently funded the purchase of a new low energy electron microscope. This system will be installed in the new building next year, and it too will have the ability to accommodate the FIB column for atomic level studies of nucleation and growth.

James Merz presents invited talk in Europe
In May, MRSEC faculty member Jim Merz gave an invited talk at the European Materials Research Society (E-MRS) Annual Meeting in Strasbourg. The paper entitled "Exciton Localization in InGaAsN and GaAsSbN Observed by Near-field Magnetoluminescence and Scanning Optical Microscopy (NSOM)," which included near-field scan analysis by MRSEC graduate student Kai Sun, will be published in IEE Proceedings Optoelectronics.

Yingge Du spends summer conducting experiments at Pacific Northwest National Lab
From May through July, MRSEC graduate student Yingge Du had an opportunity to conduct research at Pacific Northwest National Lab in Richland, WA. This was Yingge's second visit to the lab, and this summer he was invited to participate in the lab's Summer Research Institute in Interfacial and Condensed Phase Chemical Physics. Through this program Yingge was able to interact with other graduate students from around the nation while conducting his research and attending select seminars. Like last summer, Yingge's research again produced a set of exciting results that are now being prepared for publication.

Education Team will attend Fall MRS meeting with teachers
MRSEC Education Director Carolyn Vallas and Center Manager Juliet Trail will be attending the Fall 2004 MRS Conference in Boston. An Education Symposium is being held as part of the conference, entitled Communicating Materials Science - Education for the 21st Century. For this symposium, outstanding science and math teachers from around the country are being sponsored to attend the conference so that they can learn more about materials research and consider how such topics might be presented to students in class. The workshop will present lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on workshops to build tools for innovative classroom instruction. The MRSEC is sponsoring conference attendance for three local Buford Middle School teachers who are part of a Talent Development Program designed to prepare prospective 1st-generation college students for the challenge of pursuing a college education. Upon return from the conference, these teachers are going to continue to be mentored by the UVA MRSEC as part of a growing educational outreach relationship with the Buford Talent Development Program.

Summer REU planning already underway
Planning is already underway for the 2005 DOD / NSF summer research experience for undergraduates program associated with our Center. The updated application information was recently posted on the Center web site, and the deadline for applications is February 16, 2005. More information about the program planned for this upcoming summer can be found on the Center's education web page, and faculty are encouraged to start thinking about possible student projects for next year.

Lund University's Knut Deppert visits UVA
On October 4th, Knut Deppert from Lund University visited with colleagues at the University of Virginia. During his visit Dr. Deppert gave a seminar entitled, "Novel nanomaterials and nanostructures out of a spray can." His visit also provided an opportunity for Robert Hull, Bill Johnson, and Carolyn Vallas to continue discussions regarding the recently funded collaboration between our Center and the Nanometer Consortium housed at Lund in Sweden.

Robin Catalano accepts job at Infineon Technologies - Richmond
MRSEC graduate student Robin Catalano began working for Infineon Technologies - Richmond in June. In her new capacity at Infineon, Robin is working in the product engineering group where she supports the probe, assembly, test and module areas. Her responsibilities include providing electrical failure analysis to drive yield improvements. Robin is in the process of writing up her masters thesis, following a productive visit to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in the spring to collect experimental data. Right now Robin is coming to Charlottesville about once each week to continue her data analysis and thesis editing. With co-advisors Mike Gorman and James Groves, Robin will soon have an article entitled "Societal Dimensions of Nanotechnology" appearing in a special Winter 2004 nanotechnology issue of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine.

Mike Gorman is on sabbatical
MRSEC faculty member Mike Gorman is on sabbatical this fall. He is spending time at Arizona State University working with colleague Tom Picraux and others, continuing to explore societal and ethical implications of nanotechnology. We look forward to Mike's return with lots of new ideas and energy.

Our MRSEC family grows
In addition to their research efforts on behalf of the Center, graduate students Tom Schamp and Yingge Du have been busy welcoming young new members to the MRSEC family this summer. Tom and his wife Camm, welcomed their son Zachariah Carroll (6 lbs 15.5 oz) into the world on July 30th. Meanwhile Yingge and his wife Chunna welcomed their son Forest Tao (7 lbs 12 oz) into the world on August 11th. Congratulations to both families!