Beauty of Nanofabrication

The Queen’s Anniversary Prize logo on a sewing needle

The University of Southampton’s world-leading expertise in photonics and fibre optic technology has been awarded the prestigious Queen’s Anniversary Prize(QAP) for Higher and Further Education. Dr Jun-Yu(Bruce) Ou and Dr Oleksandr Buchnev fabricated the QAP logo together with the ORC and the University of Southampton logo on the tip of a sewing needle by focused ion beam technology to celebrate the event. A focused stream of accelerated gallium ions is used as a tool to blast away atoms and molecules so any shape can be carved on the nanometre scale. newslink1 newslink2

Christmas greetings on a sugar crystal:

The yellow false colour area indicated sugar crystals. The images are created by Dr Jun-Yu(Bruce) Ou in 2018.

EPSRC(Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) logo on human hair

This video demonstrates the real-time process of manufacturing the EPSRC logo on human hair using Focused Ion Beam Technology. The film was created by Dr Jun-Yu(Bruce) Ou and presented with Professor Nikolay Zheludev in the EPSRC Science & Sandwiches event on 20 November 2013. YouTube link

The ORC and the University of Southampton logo on human hair

The SEM images show the logos of the Optoelectronic Research Centre and the University of Southampton milled on top of a human hair by directly focused ion beam milling. The minimum feature is about 70 nm, 1000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair!! It is a great example of the power of nanotechnology and has been demonstrated in several outreach events.

Crazy structures made by electron beam lithography (EBL)

Nano-pyramid made of negative resist(maN-2405) by EBL and mom milling process. the bottom dimensions of the nano-pyramid are 500nm X 500nm.

Nano-wall made of negative resist(maN-2405) by using EBL. The hight of the wall is 500nm and width is about 100nm.

Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ nano-fin structures fabricated by EBL and ion milling. The width of the nano-fin is only 43nm.