Building Blocks

The science that is carried out within the CNSI may be classified according to:

Chemical, Biological, and Materials Development
The development of the chemical, biological, and materials approaches toward the fabrication and assembly of the fundamental nanoscale building blocks. This science includes the synthesis of traditional materials (e.g. semiconductors) that are designed to exhibit nontraditional behavior (e.g. ferromagnetism). It also includes the development of manufacturing routes for traditional devices (e.g. quantum well lasers) from nontraditional routes (e.g., biomimetic synthesis). It further includes the development of manufacturing routes for nontraditional devices (e.g. photonic band gap materials) from nontraditional routes (e.g., 3D assembly of modulated dielectrics). At the heart of these types of approaches is the concept of bottom-up manufacturing. Such an approach to manufacturing, which is inherent to all biological systems, is in contrast to all modern manufacturing approaches, such as semiconductor processing, which are classified as top-down manufacturing. Most of the work in this area is carried out within the labs of the various CNSI investigators.

Characterization Tools
The development of the characterization tools for understanding, at a molecular scale of resolution, the structure and dynamics of nanosystems. Similar to how much of high technology semiconductor processing was enabled by the development of ultrahigh vacuum surface science techniques, CNSI scientists are developing a complement of imaging tools that will enable nanosystems manufacturing. However, unlike traditional analytical tools, nanosystems are typically characterized as extremely high information content systems, and so the development of analytical experimental techniques is accompanied by the development of algorithms for data mining, data reconstruction, and image analysis. The work in this area will be enabled by a state-of-the-art user facilities that have the capabilities of probing length scales that range continuously from atomic dimensions (e.g. NMR & x-ray) to molecular dimensions (e.g. single molecule spectroscopies; all-optical NMR; electron microscopies and cryo-electron microscopies) to macromolecular, cellular, and large length scales (e.g. nano-PET, micro-PET, and PET). Many of these imaging techniques are already being developed (for example micro-PET in small lab animals is quickly making PET the technology of choice for pharmaceutical screening), while others are currently in the developmental stage.

Manufacturing Tools
The development of the manufacturing tools for constructing nanosystems - i.e. for merging top-down and bottom-up manufacturing approaches, and for coupling the reliability of silicon based processing with the atomic precision, selectivity, and sensitivity of biological macromolecules. To this end, large multi-user fabrication facilities will be constructed, with complementary capabilities at both UCSB and UCLA. These facilities will allow for the rapid prototyping of novel devices and structures, and will serve as a major focus of the CNSI - especially as regards to generating strong industrial involvement. These facilities, which we have labeled as Integrated Molecular Systems Fabrication Facilities (INMOS), would represent a very significant and possibly formidable investment from any one industry - especially without a strong product-driven motivation to build such a facility. However, through the CNSI, our industrial partners will have access to such a facility, and it will enable those industries to move quickly within a pre-competitive environment to identify and develop nanosystems-based technologies.

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