Welcome

The interests of the Nano research group is focused on fabrication and engineering at the nanometre-length scale to produce a wide range novel devices and integrated systems. This includes the creation and characterization of new metamaterials and the study of biomimetics, which aims to borrow evolutionary solutions to optical and mechanical problems from the natural world. Current research topics encompass MEMS/NEMS devices, photonic crystal circuits, solar cells, new materials, atom chips, Lab-on-a-Chip, particle manipulators, nanomagnetic materials and devices, and nanophotonics, as well as continuing work on ultimate MOS devices.

The Nano group also runs the Southampton Nanofabrication Centre, a state-of-the-art clean room in the new Mountbatten Complex, which is planned to go on-line in the summer of 2008. This purpose-built facility will provide a flexible capability for a wide range of nano- and bio-nano technologies. The processing of silicon-based materials will be at the heart of the facility, but thin-film, polymer and glass-based technologies will also be available. Researchers will be encouraged to use the clean room for their research and to develop skills and techniques that allow them to innovate in imaginative new ways.

Lithography will be provided by a mixture of optical and electron-beam techniques, giving an ultimate resolution down to 5 nm. The fabrication of nanostructures by self-assembly will also form an important part of the clean room capability, through the use of chemical vapour deposition systems for the growth of carbon nanotubes, semiconductor nanowires and quantum dots. Ultra-thin film deposition will be possible by epitaxy and atomic layer deposition, thereby facilitating the fabrication of a range of IV/IV materials (Si, Ge, SiGe), as well as novel materials such as metal oxides. A dedicated bioelectronics laboratory is integrated into the clean room for the development of optical biosensing techniques, including surface plasmon resonance microscopy to measure and image the interactions of proteins and cells with surfaces.

Areas of research include:
Nanotechnology and Nanoelectronics, Nanophotonics (photonic crystals and integrated photonics), Quantum Technology and electronic devices, Micro and Nanoelectromechanical Systems (MEMS, microsensors and actuators), Bioelectronics and Lab on a Chip (Microfluidics and Nanofluidics), RF system design (ARTIC) and Biomimetics.

School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS)

Details of current projects are included in the following sections of this site though the list is continually changing and being added to.

Much of the Group's research is also undertaken in collaboration with groups in other UK universities and many industrial partners.