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Physical Measurement Laboratory / Nanoscale Device Characterization Division

Nanoscale Spectroscopy Group

Projects/Programs

Displaying 1 - 17 of 17
eight boxes with different graphs

Accurate Mapping of Thermal Properties at the Nanoscale

Ongoing
Continuous advances in the performance and functionality of semiconductor devices have been driven by scale reduction, incorporation of new and nanomaterials, and by heterogeneous integration (HI). However, such scaling and integrated architecture has rendered existing thermal metrology inadequate...
schematic of UV pump

Carrier Dynamics Measured by Ultrafast Time-Resolved Terahertz Spectroscopy

Ongoing
We employ ultrafast pulsed optical measurement techniques to directly monitor carrier generation, migration and relaxation dynamics in bulk semiconductors, polymers and mixed organic/organometallic photovoltaic nanofilms. These studies are conducted to measure (without contact) ultrafast carrier...
Schematic of interface engineering 2D materials.

Chemical Functionalization and Manipulation of Nano Materials

Completed
This project focuses on manipulating nanomaterials, including weakly bonded van der Waals systems, and probing emergent phenomena in these nanoengineered systems to impact technologies such as nanoelectronics, optoelectronics, quantum sensing, and quantum computing. Developing processes to...
Nitrogen-vacancy center in a diamond crystal

Diamond NV Center Magnetometry

Completed
A flaw in a crystal might not be an intuitive choice for a measurement tool, but the nitrogen-vacancy (NV-) defect in diamond is something special. Using light, we prepare the NV- center’s the quantum spin state, it interacts with magnetic fields, and we read out the resulting spin state through...
Contrast enhancement at the diffraction limit using DUV Fourier ptychography (left) and 3D reconstructed image (right).

DUV/EUV Nanoscopy for Imaging Nanostructures

Ongoing
Novel optical nanoscopy techniques using deep-ultraviolet (DUV) and extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) laser sources are developed to characterize nanostructures with high dimensional sensitivity and low uncertainty for advancing the semiconductor devices manufacturing process. The illumination beam is...
Electron micrographs of representative as-synthesized MNPs for thermometry.

Engineering and Optical Characterization of Magnetic Nanoparticles (MNPs)

Completed
Nanomagnets by Design Nanoparticles are an important subclass of low-dimensional magnetic materials displaying size-dependent magnetic behavior. The controllable magnetocrystalline anisotropy introduced at nanoscale size regimes (as low as 3 nms in diameter) allows for MNPs of ferro/ferrimagnetic...
Organic light emitting diode, light output is modulated through magnetic control of exciton states

Exciton and Charge Transport Dynamics in Organic Semiconductors

Ongoing
Our approach toward establishing connections between the application space and physical phenomena includes developing electrical/optical devices and measurements that can be used for physical measurement, physical measurements that can be applied to real devices, and device design that can be tuned...
Diagram showing our multidimensional spectroscopy experiment.

Femtosecond Nonlinear Optical Spectroscopy of Nanoscale Materials

Ongoing
The purpose of this project is to develop and refine spectroscopic techniques based on nonlinear optics for the study of novel materials. Measurements that isolate the nonlinear response are often better able to uncover physical processes that, in the linear response, are subtle and hard to isolate...
NIST 193 nm Microscope.

Optical Methods for 3-D Nanostructure Metrology (Archived)

Completed
This project develops new approaches to optical microscopy based on a high magnification optical platform that samples the full 3-D scattered field. Both the semiconductor industry and the evolving nanomanufacturing sector are facing enormous challenges measuring nanometer scale features over large...
Spectroscopic ellipsometry measurement of a 2D monolayer and the optical property for such a thin layer.

Optical and Optoelectronic Materials Characterization

Ongoing
Today's electronics have reached a point where sheer computation power has combined form and function as the key driver of large consumer markets. The demand for portable and pervasive electronics with greater functionality promises significant changes over the next decades in how society interacts...
Schematic of quantum entangled molecules or nanoparticles in dual cavity system.

Photonic Quantum State Imaging Metrology

Ongoing
Fundamental understanding of quantum behavior of single molecules, which is a favorable candidate for quantum information processing technologies, has advanced gradually, relying on empirical studies mostly. This requires a measurement platform to study fundamental quantum characteristics in single...
Schematic of unresolved imaging of a periodic structure. Extracting deep-subwavelength information from such images requires mastery of several techniques; this project seeks to integrate machine learning for metrology.

Quantitative Nanoscale Imaging Through Artificial Intelligence

Ongoing
This project extends optical capabilities for the characterization of nanoscale devices as they increase in complexity, with challenging new materials properties, thicknesses, and length scales that challenge simplistic applications of the fundamental equations of electromagnetism. Critical...
Measurements of transition probability vs. pulse length and detuning

Sequential Bayesian Experiment Design

Completed
We develop and publish the optbayesexpt python package. The package implements sequential Bayesian experiment design to control laboratory experiments for efficient measurements. The package is designed for measurements with: an experiment (possibly computational) that yields measurements and...
David Gundlach

Thin Film Electronics (Archived)

Completed
Today's electronics have reached a point where sheer computation power has yielded to combined form and function as the key driver of large consumer markets. The demand for portable and pervasive electronics with greater functionality promises significant changes over the next decades in how society...
Sample in cryostat.

Ultrafast Spectroscopy to Advance Microelectronics

Ongoing
Continued advancement in microelectronics, including analog and digital electronics, power electronics, optics and photonics, and micromechanics for memory, processing, sensing, and communications as defined by the OSTP “National Strategy on Microelectronics Research,” requires knowledge of material...
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