Center for Nanotechnologies (CNT-IMT)

Coordinator of the Centre for Nanotechnologies:

 

The Centre for NanoTechnologies (CNT-IMT) of the National Institute for R&D in Microtechnologies (IMT-Bucharest) is an interdisciplinary centre offering a variety of scientific and technological services in the nanotechnology field.

The centre was set up in 2002 as a centre of excellence under the aegis of the Romanian Academy, this affiliation involving only a scientific supervision (2002-2017). At first, the Centre was represented just by the Laboratory of Nanotechnology (set up in 1996, at the same time when IMT became a national institute).

Starting January 2009, the Centre of Nanotechnologies has extended its activities, involving an interdisciplinary group of researchers from the following R&D laboratories:

• Nanobiotechnology Laboratory (the former Nanotechnology laboratory);
• Laboratory structuring and characterization at the nano-scale;
• Laboratory of molecular nanotechnology

The above research laboratories created a number of “experimental laboratories” with state of the art facilities/equipments in the clean area of the institute. The researchers of the “centre” are managing these experimental laboratories, which are open for all their colleagues inside and outside the institute. They are also providing services for education and industry. Details can be found accessing the web pages of the laboratories. Information about projects, recent publications etc. are also available.

We are summarizing below, for your guidance, the main areas of expertise for these laboratories.

• Nanobiotechnology Laboratory
  • fabrication of functional nanomaterials / nanostructures, study, control and tuning of their properties towards applications, together with appropriate surface functionalization methods;
  • advanced characterization techniques for nanomaterials and thin films envisaging further improvement of their properties to find the optimal solutions for the device’ design and also, more recently, addressing the health risks of these new nanomaterials and the associated industrial nanoproducts, in order to underpin their safe use.
  • design and fabrication of new devices on silicon, polymers or hybrid multilevel systems, for applications in many interdisciplinary areas, from biomedicine (optoelectronic biosensors) to energy harvesting (miniaturized fuel cell devices such as clean energy sources).
    
    
• Nano-scale structuring and characterization laboratory 
• nanoscale characterization of surfaces and interfaces by Scanning Probe Microscopy. The first team in Romania  to use  an Atomic Force Microscope (since 1996), which have played a pioneering role at the national level in AFM characterization.
• small-scale mechanical characterization by depth-sensing nano-indentation techniques. The laboratory acquired and put to use the first Nano Indenter ever installed in Romania
• Scanning Electron Microscopy  (both conventional and field emission) and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry
• Nanoscale patterning by Gaussian beam Electron Beam Lithography (EBL). The laboratory was the promoter of this nanolithographic technique at the national level, through the installation in 2006 of the first EBL system in Romania: a SEM (TescanVega II LMU) converted to lithography with a pattern generator (Raith Elphy Plus). This equipment facilitated the fabrication of various nanostructures and nanodevices: MSM-UV photodetectors, AW structures for microwave applications, micro and nanostructures for photonic applications.
  
  
• Laboratory of molecular nanotechnology
  • experimental nano- and microtechnology of organic and inorganic materials:  cleanroom processes and chemical procedures for molecular electronics; design, fabrication, characterization and simulation of MEMS and biosensors; synthesis and characterization of carbon based functional materials; synthesis and characterization of doped crystals (thin films of complex oxides and high-temperature superconductors).
  • advanced characterization of electronic materials: characterization of surface doping profiles with local probes; interaction of surface waves with micro-structured surfaces.
  • modeling, simulation and analysis of quantum, microscopic and macroscopic phenomena in organic and inorganic materials and systems: electronic structure and optical properties of crystals, molecules and low dimensional nanostructures by ab-initio and empirical methods; quantum transport in nanostructures; ab-initio molecular dynamics; dielectric response of living cells and composites; plasmonic response of metallic nanoparticles; neuronal firing detection, signal analysis and data mining for functional neurosurgery;  algorithms for image guided surgery.

HOME

Last update: August 2017