Platform for Nanoscale Advanced Materials Engineering (P-NAME)

Most advanced materials are actually composite systems where each part is specifically tailored to provide a particular functionality often via doping. In electronic devices this may be p- or n-type behaviour (the preference to conduct positive of negative charges), in optical devices the ability to emit light at a given wavelength (such as in the infrared for optical fibre communications), or in magnetic materials the ability to store information based on the direction of a magnetic field for example. To enable the realisation of new devices it is essential to increase the density of functionality within a given device volume. Simple miniaturisation (i.e. to fit more devices of the same type but of smaller size) is limited in scope as the nanoscale regime is reached, not only by the well-known emergence of quantum effects, but by the simple capability to control the materials engineering on this scale. Self-assembly methods for example enable the creation of 0D (so called 'quantum dots' or 'artificial atoms'), 1D (wire-like) and 2D (sheet-like) materials with unique properties, but the subsequent control and modification of these is non-trivial and has yet to be demonstrated in many cases.

This research aims to establish a Platform for Nanoscale Advanced Materials Engineering (P-NAME) facility that incorporates a new tool which will provide the capability required to deliver a fundamental change in our ability to design and engineer materials. The principle of the technique that we will adapt, is that which revolutionised the micro-electronics industry in the 20th century (ion-doping) but applied on the nanoscale for the first time. Furthermore, the P-NAME tool will be compatible with a scalable technology platform and therefore compatible with its use in high-tech device manufacture. Without this capability the production of increasingly complex materials offering enhance functionality at lower-power consumption will be difficult to achieve.

The P-NAME facility will be established within a new UK National Laboratory for Advanced Materials (the Henry Royce Institute) at the University of Manchester. Access to the tool will be made available to UK academics and industry undertaking research into advanced functional materials and devices development.

All devices rely upon materials providing a given functionality or set of functionalities. As we demand more from our existing technologies and seek to develop new ones we are therefore required to return to their fundamental material components to deliver this. As a direct result advanced materials research is fundamental to not only to those doing the research and development to also leads to direct benefit for technology end users. This might be in the provision of improved and new sensors for health monitoring and security; for the storage of locally generated energy or more efficient transmission and use of energy stored elsewhere; for faster processing of data and increase storage capability; or in the development of technologies that will yield yet discovered opportunities (e.g. quantum computing).

The P-NAME facility and tool will provide a new method of enabling and studying the development of new functionality within existing materials and also supporting the development of new materials for future exploitation in devices. Research programmes studying those examples described above are underway within the UK, and those leading them have been involved in the development of the P-NAME tool specification. The same is true for many other areas of research, including those based overseas. As such both they and the eventual end users of the technology delivered will benefit.

The P-NAME facility will be operated within a national laboratory (the Henry Royce Institute, HRI) and through this will be available to all UK researchers in both academia and industry. It will challenge researchers to rethink how some aspects of materials development and discovery is undertaken as it offers access to material doping opportunities previously unavailable, and removes barriers that existing solutions have not been able to overcome. As new materials and functionality is enabled by P-NAME those developing it will be supported, by the HRI and University of Manchester, in the pathway from discovery through to exploitation. This will include engagement and access to other expertise and to potential users, the protection and exploitation of intellectual property, and the dissemination of information.

The provision of P-NAME within the UK as the first instrument to deliver the capability proposed will offer a unique opportunity to UK advanced materials (and related technologies) researchers to benefit, and attract a critical mass of expertise such that it supports on going UK leadership in this area.