Nanostructure Engineering Science and Technology

Graphene nanostructure sheet at atomic scale © Shutterstock

What is Nanostructure Engineering Science and Technology?

The forefront of much modern engineering and science research is at the scale of the smallest devices currently possible - in the range of nanometres. For engineers, the advantages of such small devices include increased speed and packing density, and novel functionality. For the scientist, working on such small scales reveals a range of exciting and unexpected fundamental phenomena.

Ideally engineering and scientific developments feed off each other: The NEST group performs advanced research in niche areas across the spectrum of applied engineering and basic science of nano-metre scale structures. The group focuses on fabrication and characterisation of nano-scale electronic, opto-electronic and micro/nanofluidic devices.

Postgraduate Programme

The Nanostructure Engineering, Science and Technology group (NEST) based at the University of Canterbury invites applications from well qualified graduates in Physics, Electrical Engineering, or a related subject, to carry out research towards a masters degree or PhD in nanotechnology.

The NEST group has recently secured considerable research funding from the Marsden Research Fund. The programme involves collaborations with University of Otago, Victoria University of Wellington, University of Auckland and Callaghan Innovation; some projects are based at those institutions or will involve collaborative work with them. A number of studentships are available, covering tuition fees at the domestic rate and living expenses at a reasonable level.

See the Research Projects page for more information about the current research

Micro- and Nanofabrication Facilities

Cleanroom Facility for micro- and nanofabrication are housed in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. The facility is equipped for thin-film deposition, thermal processing, photolithography (yellow room) including mask fabrication, nanoimprint lithography, electron beam lithography, wet etching, dry etching (reactive ion etching) and materials characterization.

Equipment

Laurell WS-650 and Headway PWM32-PS-R790 spin-coaters
EVG automated NIL system
Heidelberg uPG101 laser mask writer
LEO FEG-SEM & Raith150 electron beam lithography system
Karl Suss MA-6 UV / DUV mask aligner
Nanoscribe Photonic Professional GT2 nanoscale 3D printer
Silicon tube furnaces
Reactive ion etching Oxford Plasmalab 80
Edwards Auto500 DC/RF magnetron sputtering system
Temescal FC-1800 electron beam evaporator
Oxford PlasmaPro 100 Cobra ICP deep reactive ion etcher
Tergeo remote and immersion plasma cleaner
Optical profilometer Profilm3D
Stylus profilometer Taylor-Hobson Intra-Touch
Atomic force microscope Digital Instruments Dimension 3100
Optical microscope Olympus BX30
Interference lithography
Micromill CNC Mini-Mill/GX
Semiconductor device characterisation HP 4155A parameter analyser
Kulicke and Soffa ultrasonic wirebonder Model 4526
Cascade Microtech 11000 probe station with Temptronic TP03000 thermal chuck
ABET Sun3000 solar simulator
FR-pOrtable non-destructive characterization of transparent and semi-transparent single films or stack of films

Microfluidics and Cell-culture Facilities

PC-2 Biological Containment Facility certified for live cell and micro-organism experiments. Equipped for cell-culture, biological imaging and microfluidic device testing.

Equipment

Class 2 Biological Laminar Flow Hood
2x Harvard PHD2000 Syringe Pump
NE4000 Syringe Pump
2x Elveflow OB1 MK3+ - 4 channel flow controller
Elveflow MUX Quake Valve - microfluidic flow switch matrix
Elveflow flow and pressure sensors
Nikon Eclipse 80i Fluorescence Microscope (B-3A, FITC, TxRed, DAPI, Special Red, RTDP, MitoXpress)
Nikon Eclipse Ti Inverted Fluorescence Microscope
Hamamatsu ORCA Flash 4 V2 digital imaging system
LED microscope illumination X-Cite-120LEDBoost
Nikon Eclipse TS100 F Inverted Microscope
Contherm Mitre 4000 Cell-Culture Incubator
Heraeus Labofuge 300
PreSense Microx4 trace dissolved oxygen sensor system
Autolab Potentiostat PGSTAT302 with FRA32M, ECD, FI20 and BA modules
Electro-Technic Products BD20 Corona Plasma Treater
Thorlabs High-Speed Motorized XY Scanning Stage

Academic Staff

Post-Doctoral Fellows

Researcher Engineers

Postgraduate Students

Daniel Mak
Michal Bernach
Zhuoyue Wang
Debolina Sarkar
Ryan Adams
Kate Wislang
Sarah Sale
Claudia Allan
Finn McIntyre

Marsden Fund - The Marsden Fund was established by the government to support excellence in research and researchers
Callaghan Innovation - New Zealand's leading industrial science and technology company with an international focus and reach
The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology
The Dodd-Walls Centre
The Biomolecular Interaction Centre

Other Sites

Micro-fabrication Facility - Callaghan Innovation
Auckland Microfab - University of Auckland
Cleanroom Fabrication Facility - Victoria University
Photonfactory - University of Auckland
The Australian National Fabrication Facility
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan
The University of Glasgow Nanoelectronics Research Centre

The micro- and nanofabrication cleanroom facility of the Nanostructure Engineering Science and Technology group is used for outreach activities and undergraduate teaching. In particular, the facility is used to deliver the laboratory part of the 3rd professional year electrical and computer engineering course ENEL491 - Nano Engineered Devices. As part of this laboratory component students use NEST facility equipment to fabricate single crystal silicon solar cells and characterize their efficiency.

Current students please contact Linda Chen for training and laboratory access.