Grant: Major Resources Support Program - Infrastructure

The Pacific Centre for Advanced Materials and Microstructures (PCAMM) is a regional Centre in British Columbia that serves a community of researchers - from Physics, Chemistry, and Engineering departments at Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia, and the University of Victoria; and a diverse set of non-academic enterprises - who develop novel structured materials designed to out-perform existing materials in a diverse range of applications. PCAMM coordinates the acquisition and operation of key crystal growth, micro/nanofabrication, and characterization facilities at the three universities, so that they i) are easily accessible by all academic and non-academic materials researchers in the Region, and ii) operate at a level that supports collaborative research projects with top researchers the world over. PCAMM was formed in 1995, just before universities began replacing retiring faculty members at the rate of several per year. The number of researchers involved in advanced materials and micro- (or now also nano-) structures has since tripled in the Region. PCAMM has thus expanded considerably, and diversified. In 1995 most of the activity was concentrated in semiconductor and metal physics, and surface chemistry; today, there is much new activity in oxides, and there are more engineers involved in advanced materials and microstructures of all types (carbon nanotubes, textured metal films, microfluidic chips etc.). Over the same period, the facilities associated with PCAMM have expanded greatly, mostly through CFI-funded projects, but also via both NSERC and CIHR equipment grants. Epitaxial growth capabilities and micro- and nano-fabrication facilities have each more than doubled in extent, while characterization tools have been updated and expanded in scope. The requested funding provides the security that keeps the people who maintain facilities in PCAMM: without this continuing support, there would be a catastrophic drop in research capacity.