New ANFF-VIC staff member at Deakin’s IFM
Dr Dylan Hegh has joined ANFF-VIC at Deakin University and will be responsible for industry engagement on fibre-related research at the Institute of Frontier Materials IFM.
His role is also to promote and facilitate the open access of these facilities so that they are made available beyond the host University to the wider academic and industrial communities, and will support research projects involving the development, production and characterisation of fibres and yarns using electrospinning, melt-spinning and wet-spinning facilities.
Dylan is from New Zealand, has a PhD in chemistry, and has previously worked as a postdoc on commercial projects including drug delivery of antiparkinsonian and anti-seizure medication. He has recently finished a commercial project wet spinning natural and man-made polymers to produce textile fabrics for garments at Deakin University.
ANFF-VIC is delighted that Dylan has joined the network, and looks forward to the exciting developments his work will enable.
Publication of the Year 2018
ANFF-VIC is holding its Publication of the Year award for a second year, the winner will receive a $200 cash prize.
Any peer-reviewed paper that was published in 2018 with the correct ANFF-VIC acknowledgment is automatically entered. Judging will be conducted by an internal team that will assess publications based upon the quality of the research, scientific communication and novelty.
Papers must have the correct ANFF-VIC acknowledgment to be considered – use of this acknowledgment also entitles you to $200 user credit towards a future MCN quote.
If you missed your acknowledgments this year, be sure to include it any future work that will be published. Please use the following in the acknowledgement section of any papers:
“This work was performed in part at the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication (MCN) in the Victorian Node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF).”
Please note: Submissions are now also open for ANFF-VIC’s Image of the Year award. Click here for details.
Submissions open for 2018 ANFF-VIC image of the year
Sara Ghavamian (Gholam Nejad) (2017 Winner)
The small round object trapped in between the spikes of the feature resembles a goalkeeper holding a ball under their arm. My surfaces are designed to investigate the antibacterial properties of patterned substrates and are imaged at MCN using NOVA FEG-SEM tool. The original mould was fabricated using photolithography but the visualized surfaces are PDMS (half-way replicated) or OrmoComp (fully replicated).
Stella Aslanoglou and Qianqian Shi (2017 Shortlist)
The gold nanocube plasmene sits on top of Si nanowires. This is an image that combines a "soft" plasmene and "hard" Si nanowires. When they meet with each other, both of them maintained their own characteristics: the Si nanowires provide supporting while the ultra-thin plasmene keeps flat on the tips without any structure collapse and shows a semi-transparent feature.
This image was taken using MCN's FIB-SEM.
Kate Fox and Alastair Stacey (2017 Shortlist)
Diamond coated 3D printed titanium cubes, coated using the MCN PCD diamond CVD equipment (credit K Fox and A Stacey). These cubes are part of a submitted article entitled "Polycrystalline Diamond Coating of Additively Manufactured Titanium for Biomedical Applications".
Sara Ghavamian (Gholam Nejad) (2017 Winner)
The small round object trapped in between the spikes of the feature resembles a goalkeeper holding a ball under their arm. My surfaces are designed to investigate the antibacterial properties of patterned substrates and are imaged at MCN using NOVA FEG-SEM tool. The original mould was fabricated using photolithography but the visualized surfaces are PDMS (half-way replicated) or OrmoComp (fully replicated).
Stella Aslanoglou and Qianqian Shi (2017 Shortlist)
The gold nanocube plasmene sits on top of Si nanowires. This is an image that combines a "soft" plasmene and "hard" Si nanowires. When they meet with each other, both of them maintained their own characteristics: the Si nanowires provide supporting while the ultra-thin plasmene keeps flat on the tips without any structure collapse and shows a semi-transparent feature.
This image was taken using MCN's FIB-SEM.
Kate Fox and Alastair Stacey (2017 Shortlist)
Diamond coated 3D printed titanium cubes, coated using the MCN PCD diamond CVD equipment (credit K Fox and A Stacey). These cubes are part of a submitted article entitled "Polycrystalline Diamond Coating of Additively Manufactured Titanium for Biomedical Applications".
The 2018 ANFF-VIC Image of the Year Competition is now open for submissions.
The winner will receive a $200 cash prize as well as recognition through our media channels and featured placement on Nanomelbourne.com.
The deadline for submissions is 31 January 2019, the winner will be announced in March 2019.
Submissions are now open – send your high-resolution images of work conducted in 2018 with the help of ANFF-VIC in jpg, png or tif format to mcn-images@nanomelbourne.com. Please include a short description of the image, where it was taken and any relevant publications.
These images will be printed in a large poster format, so only print-quality images will be considered.
This year’s competition will again be decided by the public. Following an internal shortlisting process we will upload the images to our twitter page, @Nanomelb, and the image with the most likes and shares will win.
All users are eligible and there is no limit to the number of times that you can enter, as long as the work has involved the use of ANFF-VIC fabrication or characterisation capabilities.
Get submitting or view last years winner here…
ANFF-VIC is also running its “Publication of the Year” competition for a second year – make sure you’re acknowledging the node correctly in all papers in order to be considered. Please use the following in the acknowledgment section of any ANFF-VIC enabled papers:
“This work was performed in part at the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication (MCN) in the Victorian Node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF).”
ANFF 2018 User Survey
Deadline 31 January 2019
We are asking all users to let us know their thoughts on MCN and ANFF-VIC’s parent organisation, the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF).
Respondents to the ANFF Survey are eligible to enter a prize draw for $100 cash voucher. If you would like to enter, please include your email address at the end of the survey.
Please note that all responses are anonymous.
View the 2018 ANFF User Survey here
MCN 2018 Client Satisfaction Survey
Deadline 31 January 2019
To ensure we continue to provide the best service possible, we are once again asking users to complete a short survey to provide us with feedback on their experiences with MCN.
This year, all respondents are eligible to enter the MCN Survey Prize Draw with a chance of winning a $200 user credit to be used towards MCN-based research projects. If you would like to enter, please include your email address at the end of the survey.
We strive to provide high-quality services and would appreciate if you could take 5 mins to complete these surveys. Your responses will aid us in serving you better in the future.
Please note that all responses are anonymous.
View the Client Satisfaction Survey here
Solution for next generation nanochips comes out of thin air
The nano-gap transistors operating in air. As gaps become smaller than the mean-free path of electrons in air, there is ballistic electron transport. CREDIT: RMIT University
The secret ingredient for the next generation of more powerful electronics could be air, according to new research conducted by ANFF-VIC Tech Ambassador, Assoc Prof Sharath Sriram.
Sharath and his team from RMIT University have engineered a new type of transistor, the building block for all electronics. Instead of sending electrical currents through silicon, these transistors send electrons through narrow air gaps, where they can travel unimpeded as if in space.
The device unveiled in material sciences journal Nano Letters, eliminates the use of any semiconductor at all, making it faster and less prone to heating up.
Fabrication of the device relied on the expertise available at ANFF-VIC's flagship facility, the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication (MCN).
Using MCN's electron beam lithography capability, the team was able to create a number of different test devices made of a range of materials with nanoscale gaps between two metal points. Sharath and the team tested a range of gap sizes between 11.5-34.1nm, resolutions that are only achievable at a few places in the country.
"The gap is only a few tens of nanometers, or 50,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair, but it's enough to fool electrons into thinking that they are travelling through a vacuum and re-create a virtual outer-space for electrons within the nanoscale air gap," Sharath explained.
The nanoscale device is designed to be compatible with modern industry fabrication and development processes. It also has applications in space - both as electronics resistant to radiation and to use electron emission for steering and positioning 'nano-satellites'.
"This is a step towards an exciting technology which aims to create something out of nothing to significantly increase speed of electronics and maintain pace of rapid technological progress," Sharath said.
This work was undertaken at RMIT University's cutting-edge Micro Nano Research Facility and with support of the Victorian node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility.
The article is now available online DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b02849
Long live nanolight!
Qiaoliang Bao – ANFF-VIC Tech Ambassador for FLEET next to MCNs NeaSNOM. The scattering-type near-field optical microscopy facility was used for polariton measurements in the study.
An ANFF-VIC-enabled international team led by researchers from Soochow University (Suzhou, China), Monash University (Melbourne, Australia), University of Oviedo (Asturias, Spain), and CIC nanoGUNE (San Sebastián, Spain) have discovered squeezed light (‘nanolight’) in the nanoscale that propagates only in specific directions along thin slabs of molybdenum trioxide – a natural anisotropic 2D material.
The team, led by Qiaoliang Bao – an ANFF-VIC Tech Ambassador working for FLEET and Monash Engineering, Pablo Alonso-González – University of Oviedo, Spain, and Rainer Hillenbrand – CIC nanoGUNE, San Sebastián, Spain, have discovered ultra-confined infrared polaritons that propagate only in specific directions along thin slabs of the natural 2D material molybdenum trioxide (α-MoO3).
Besides its unique directional character, this nanolight lives for an exceptionally long time, and thus could find applications in signal processing, sensing or heat management at the nanoscale.
Future information and communication technologies will rely on the manipulation of not only electrons but also of light at the nanometre-scale.
Qiaoliang Bao
Qiaoliang Bao works at the nanoscale, trapping photons in atomically-thin, two-dimensional materials, where high binding energies create a quantum state known as a superfluid.
The aim is a new generation of superfluid transistors that will ‘switch’ using much less energy than conventional electronics.
Such work requires access to the best nanofabrication and characterisation facilities, and Qiaoliang’s team at Monash University’s Faculty of Engineering works closely with the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication (MCN), the flagship facility of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF).
Qiaoliang has been recently namedas an ANFF-VIC Technology Fellow Ambassador. The program forges a strong Australian nanofabrication community, improves procedures, and creates ‘champions’ of ANFF facilities.
New printer guidelines
MCN has updated its printers to provide more security and a faster service when printing.
Monash University students and staff will be able to use their Monash ID cards to unlock a print job, while users from other institutions will require a number that can be provided by the reception desk.
Monash Students and Staff that require access should contact eSolutions on 51777.
MCN users from other institutions should contact the reception desk on 0399024073.
View the Printer setup guide provided by Monash University.
Shutdown for scheduled cleaning
The MCN Laboratories will closed for annual cleaning between Monday 5 Nov – Friday 9 Nov 2018.
There will be no laboratory access during this period so please plan accordingly.
Access may be granted by special application only. Please contact Paul Spizzirri (Paul.Spizzirri@nanomelbourne.com) if you have any questions.
New Process Engineer joins ANFF-VIC
The Victorian Node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility has recently welcomed a new team member to its ranks.
Dr Ashley Dyer has joined the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication (MCN) as a Process Engineer, he will join Yang Lim’s team and will initially focus on thin-films support and thermal processing.
Ash comes to us from the UK following the completion of a PhD at Swansea University’s Institute of Structural Materials, where he also completed a Master’s of Physics. His research was mainly focused on thermomechanical effects in proprietary alloys for Rolls-Royce plc with an emphasis on mechanical test development and understanding micro/nanomechanical failure modes.
Since April, Ash has been working with long-term MCN industry client, MuPharma on a project involving development, prototyping and testing of next-generation devices for ultrasonic drug-delivery.
