Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

The proposal herein is to fund the creation of a system to perform in situ characterisation and fabrication of nanophotonic structures. These will be used to improve performance and even bring new functionality to optoelectronic devices, including photovoltaic solar cells, photodetector and imaging sensors for smartphones and autonomous vehicles, and single photon emitters for quantum computing applications. This instrument would represent the first investment in research equipment in my lab, and would enable my group to begin ground-breaking experimental work in these critical applications.*The system specifically would be used for the algorithmic fabrication of nanophotonic structures (structures that utilize the wave-nature of light) for optoelectronic applications. This is achieved by combining a multi-photon polymerisation lithography system with a high-resolution laser microscopy setup in a single instrument, allowing the system to automatically write and characterise structures developed by a design algorithm. The polymer material is chosen to maximise the index contrast between the exposed (solid) and unexposed (liquid) states to enable characterisation without the need to remove the sample for development. The characterisation of the written material can thus be used to provide feedback during fabrication, or by the control algorithm to influence the design of the following structure, thereby allowing iterative design to be performed experimentally. This would thereby allow a physical manifestation of the algorithmic design processes that so far have only ever been performed through simulations.*Beyond the in situ characterisation and automated design process, the instrument is configured to achieve state-of-the-art performance in multi-photon lithography and laser characterisation of the structures and devices explored in my research. This includes techniques of maskless 2D lithography; 3D nanolithography; fluorescence, laser, and two-photon microscopy; as well as super-resolution photo activation microscopy. These are all techniques that I have either developed or used heavily in my PhD and postdoctoral work in the US and the Netherlands, and am excited to bring these into my own research program here in Canada.*To my knowledge, no system currently exists in the world that combines this unique set of techniques necessary for the algorithmic fabrication process investigated here. This is an excellent opportunity to both demonstrate to HQP in my lab, our collaborators' labs, as well as other groups around the world how automation in nanofabrication can be revolutionary in the realm of scientific research. Furthermore, there does not yet exist any system as Western University currently able to perform the fabrication of the structures investigated by my research plan. This instrument would thus not only initiate a novel nanoscience design process to explored, but would enable the commencement of my entire experimental research program.