Invited Speakers
Check out our roster of speakers for the upcoming workshop below, and read through their bios to get a better sense of what you can expect from their sessions
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Brugger
EPFL
Jürgen Brugger is a Professor of Microengineering at EPFL. Previously he was at the MESA Research Institute of Nanotechnology, University of Twente, The Netherlands, at IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, and at Hitachi Central Research Laboratory, in Tokyo, Japan, where he mainly worked on parallel scanning probe systems. He received a Master in Physical-Electronics and a PhD degree from Neuchâtel University, Switzerland. Research in his laboratory focuses on various aspects of MEMS and Nanotechnology. Jürgen Brugger is Fellow of the IEEE and the 2022 MNE Fellow. In 2017 he was awarded an ERC AdvG in the field of advanced micro-manufacturing.
Hot tip nanoengineering: 30 years and counting
​
Soon after the first publication in 1985 of the atomic force microscope (AFM) attempts were made to extend AFM-based surface probing from microscopy to lithography. In this talk, I will start by giving some background how heated AFM probes were initially designed and fabricated that led to today’s advanced thermo-mechanical probe design. The paper will then review some of our own work in t-SPL writing and pattern transfer, as well as our recent work on functional material, including 2D materials. From the time when we acquired one of the first commercial t-SPL tools, EPFL has educated many (20+) students on the technique in the frame of their projects or theses.
Dr. Armin Knoll
IBM Research Europe - Zurich
Armin Knoll received a Master's degree in experimental physics from the University of Wuerzburg, Germany (1998) and a Ph.D. from the University of Bayreuth, Germany, in 2004. After a postdoctoral fellowship with the University of Basel for 15 months (2003-2004) he joined the Advanced Media Concepts group of the Millipede project (2005-2006) at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory as a Visiting scientist. Armin Knoll joined the Science & Technology department in April 2006 as research staff member. Since 2010 he is leading the nanofabrication effort at IBM Research – Zurich and developed thermal Scanning Probe Lithography to technical market readiness. In 2012 he received an ERC Starting Grant from the European Commission for the control of objects in nanofluidic confinement.
Fully automated thermal scanning probe lithography for FET batch fabrication
​
Thermal Scanning Probe Lithography (t-SPL) has become a commercially available tool for the fabrication of nanoscale structures, including contacts to 2D materials and gates on InAs nanowires. These successes are based on high-resolution patterns of a simple device. The next step is to demonstrate reliable batch fabrication of complex devices on chip to wafer scale. The imaging capability of the tool facilitates this task because it enables nanometer precise localization of existing structures on the substrate. We showcase the potential of the tool by fabricating arrays of field effect transistors on SOI substrates. All the lithographical steps are done by the tSPL tool, assisted by the integrated laser writer. The field effect transistors have a channel width down to 20 nm and a height of 50 nm.
Prof. Dr. Weihua Zhang
​Nanjing University
Zhang Weihua is a Professor of Photonics at Nanjing University. He received his B.S. degree from Peking University in 2001 and a Ph.D. at ETH Zurich in 2007. From 2008-2013, he worked as a post-doctoral researcher at EPFL and Princeton University. In 2013, he joined the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Nanjing University. His research areas include nano-optics, nanofabrication and computational electromagnetics. He has made important contributions to the understanding of tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, plasmonic trapping and nano-assembly technique.
Multi-Physical Assembly of Functional Nanoparticles Using Thermally Modified Template by Scanning Nanoprobe
​
In this talk, we discuss a deterministic assembly technique for nanoparticles using nanostructured templates fabricated by hot nanoprobes. With this technique, single nanoparticles including quantum dots, polystyrene fluorescent nanobeads and gold nanoparticles were assembled into predefined spots with a high yield and nanometer position precision. The key for the high yields is the hot-probe-based template fabrication technique, which modulates the local geometry, surface energy and electrostatic properties simultaneously. In addition, this technique is capable of building complex nanostructures, such as nanoclusters and heterogeneously integrated nanostructures. It opens the door towards many important applications.
Prof. Dr. Ralph Spolenak
ETHZ
Ralph Spolenak has been Professor at ETH Zurich and Chair of the Laboratory for Nanometallurgy since October 1st, 2004 rising through the ranks from assistant to full professor. He currently serves as the Coordinator of FIRST lab (a cleanroom facility of ETH Zurich) and the Chairman of the Board of MaP (Center of Competence for Materials and Processes) at ETH Zurich.
The main research interests of Prof. Spolenak's group are the mechanical and functional properties of materials at the nanoscale and how these properties can be influenced by materials design approaches. The combination of testing, characterization and modeling are essential for making significant advances in this field. This comprises the development of new in situ testing methods that allow for analysis at the nanoscale. Recently, also new synthesis routes with regards to additive manufacturing at the nanometer length scale have also become a core focus of the group.
Multimaterial nanoprinting – additively manufactured nanodevices in reach?
​
​This contribution focuses on electrohydrodynamic redox printing, where with a minimum voxel size of 50 nm materials can be changed on a voxel by voxel basis. In addition to an explanation of the printing process and the effect of field focusing, latest materials developments will be presented that include the printing of copper, silver and zinc and their alloys , zinc oxide as a semiconductor and magnesium oxide as a dielectric. Some ideas towards devices with a focus on sensors will be presented and novel analysis techniques introduced.
Prof. Dr. Farnaz Niroui
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Farnaz Niroui is the Emmanuel E. Landsman Career Development Chair, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research pushes the limits of nanoscale engineering to develop new paradigms of active nanoscale devices and systems. Prior to MIT, Farnaz was a Miller Postdoctoral Fellow at University of California Berkeley. She received her PhD in Electrical Engineering from MIT and completed her undergraduate studies in Nanotechnology Engineering at University of Waterloo. Farnaz has been the recipient of awards including the DARPA Young Faculty Award, NSF CAREER Award, MIT EECS Outstanding Educator Award, and the Miller Research Fellowship.
Force Engineering for Extreme Nanodevices
​
Manipulating matter at the extreme nanoscale is key to the development of next-generation devices based on the growing library of nanomaterials. However, top-down processes lack the resolution and chemical compatibility needed. We utilize bottom-up engineering of nanoscale forces to direct nanometer control of material synthesis with deterministic spatial control and heterogeneous integration of active interfaces. Using two-dimensional materials and nanoparticles as examples, we will highlight the promise of this approach by demonstrating sub-nanometer tunable molecular actuators, pristine two-dimensional transistors, and on-chip nanoscale light-emitting devices.
Dr. Nolan Lassaline
​Nolan obtained his Bachelors degree in Nanotechnology Engineering at the University of Waterloo in Canada and his Masters degree in Micro and Nanosystems at ETH Zürich. He did his doctoral research in the Optical Materials Engineering Laboratory at ETH Zürich on the topic of Optical and electronic Fourier surfaces. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Physics department at DTU, supported by a Postdoc mobility fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation and a Villum Experiment grant from the Danish Villum Fonden. At DTU, Nolan is investigating the flow of electrons through soft potential landscapes in atomically thin materials.
The Wavy World of Fourier Surfaces
​
Photons and electrons can be described as waves that propagate and interfere through diffraction. For centuries, scientists have harnessed light waves by using diffraction gratings to disperse, focus, and encode optical signals. More recently, electrostatic gratings in 2D materials have been used to manipulate the flow of electrons through atomically thin devices in intriguing ways. Here, we leverage thermal scanning-probe lithography to create wavy nanostructured gratings—Fourier surfaces—for enhanced control over the diffraction of photons and electrons. The potential of Fourier surfaces will be discussed for holographic optics, integrated photonics, and quantum electronics.
Dr. Maria Giordano
Maria Caterina Giordano is researcher at the Physics Department of the University of Genova (Italy) where her activity is focused on the development of novel nanomaterials, metasurfaces and nanodevices for photonic applications. She is an expert in self-organized and top-down nanofabrication with a focus on the thermal scanning probe lithography. She is interested in the study of the optoelectronic properties of plasmonic and layered nanomaterials for nanophotonics, energy conversion, and sensing. From 2016 to 2018 she worked at CNR-NANO in Pisa focusing on the Terahertz nanophotonics and on the near-field optical microscopy techniques.
Thermal sculpting of 2D TMDs nanocircuits for large-scale nanoelectronics
​
We show the deterministic nanofabrication of 2D TMDs nanocircuits based on few-layer MoS2, through the effective combination of a large-area physical growth method with the thermal-Scanning Probe Lithography (t-SPL). This additive approach allows us the non-invasive high-resolution nanofabrication of few-layer MoS2 nanopaths defined onto large-scale substrates. The few-layer TMDs nanodevices show clear Raman and optical features of the 2H-MoS2 semiconducting phase, and good electronic transport properties locally measured via Kelvin Probe and conductive AFM nanoscopy. This approach based on t-SPL thus represents an enabling technology for the engineering of 2D Van der Waals nanodevices in optoelectronics, photonics and quantum technologies.
Prof. Dr. Herre van der Zant
Technical University of Delft
​Herre van der Zant finished his PhD in 1991 at the Delft University of Technology on measurements of classical and quantum phase transitions in Josephson junction arrays. Thereafter, he went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology researching the applications of superconducting electronics. Back in Delft, he received a five year fellowship from the Dutch Royal Academy for Sciences and in 2005 he cofounded a new research group in the Delft Kavli Institute for Nanoscience centered around molecular electronics and nano-electro-mechanical systems. The present vander Zant laboratory has a broad research focus on quantum transport of bottom-up nanodevices and nanomechanics of atomically thin membranes.
Thermocurrent of a single-molecule transistor
​
We use an electromigrated single-molecule junction with an integrated on-chip heater and a novel measurement protocol to probe simultaneously the DC and AC conductances as well as the thermocurrent as a function of bias- and gate voltage. We show that the thermocurrent Coulomb diamond maps can be reproduced by a rate-equation model incorporating vibrational states and the spin degeneracies. The results open the path to the use of thermocurrent as a new spectroscopic tool to access molecule-specific quantum transport phenomena for e.g. spin physics in high-spin molecules or the direct study of the fundamental ingredients of Kondo physics.
Prof. Dr. Radha Boya
Prof. Radha Boya FRSC is Royal Society URF and Kathleen Ollerenshaw fellow at the University of Manchester. After completing her PhD in India and post-doc in the USA, she secured series of highly prestigious international fellowships that enabled her rapid research profile in the UK. She has published 60 research papers including several of these in Nature and Science journals. Radha was awarded an ERC-starting grant, Philip Leverhulme Prize, RSC Marlow award, UNESCO-L’Oréal International Rising Talent and UK&I women in science fellow, Analytical Chemistry Young Innovator award, and was recognized in the MIT Technology Review's global "Innovators under 35" list.
One atom thin angstrom-scale capillaries: Confined flows
​
Angstrom (Å)-scale capillary is an antipode of graphene, created by extracting one-atomic layer out of a layered crystal. As the Å-capillaries are made from atomically smooth building blocks i.e., 2D-materials, we can alleviate the surface roughness which usually predominates at this scale. A core strand of the work that I will present is the development of Å-capillaries as a platform to probe intriguing molecular-scale phenomena experimentally, including: ionic memory, water flow under extreme atomic-scale confinement complete steric exclusion of ions, specular reflection and quantum effects in gas reflections off a surface, voltage gating of ion flows, translocation of DNA.
Prof. Dr. Francesc Perez-Murano
IMB-CNM (Barcelona)
​Francesc Perez-Murano is research professor at the Institute of Microelectronics of Barcelona. His main activity has centered in nanofabrication and its combination with integrated circuit technologies. Some achievements are: Local anodic oxidation by SPM (1993), First works worldwide on the integration of nanomechanical resonators in CMOS circuits (2001); Determination of a novel piezoresistive transduction phenomena in silicon nanowire resonators (2014); Use of focused ion beam implantation for the fabrication of single electron devices (2016); Contributions to the development of directed self-assembly as a nanolithography method (2012-2021), Vice-director of IMB-CNM (2016-2021) and chair of MNE 2006 and co-chair of MNE 2017;
Nanofabrication challenges for quantum technologies based on semiconductor devices
​
Devices for quantum technologies are different from conventional devices, and their fabrication require an extreme degree of accuracy. Semiconductor devices for quantum computing rely on the formation of quantum dots, by electrostatic or geometrical confinement, to define, control and operate spin qubits. The fabrication technology uses state-of-the art processes which are at the frontier of present knowledge. The development of improved processes will allow to obtain devices currently unavailable. In this talk, challenges and limitations of the present processes for the fabrication of silicon based qubits, as well as some alternative approaches based on novel nanofabrication methods will be presented.
Dr. Benedikt Stender
Multiphoton Optics GmbH
Dr. Benedikt Stender has been the CEO of Multiphoton Optics GmbH since March 2021. He was the CTO at the same company from June 2016 to March 2021, and an Applications Engineer from 2015 to 2016. He completed his PhD work in the field of single photon sources and organic light emitting diodes from 2011-2015 at the University of Wuerzburg. His diploma thesis in 2010 was on inkjet-printed micro lenses at Fraunhofer ISC. Between 2008 and 2009, he was a visiting student at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver (Canada), as part of his studies on Nanostructure Technology at the University of Wuerzburg. Dr. Stender combines his hands-on experience and deep expertise in additive manufacturing, quantum technologies, high-resolution microscopy and organic electronics to bring two-photon polymerization technologies to emerging application fields.
Integrating 3D lithography and micro 3D printing into one system for photonics applications
​
Based on the underlying printing resolution two-photon polymerization (TPP) can be distinguished into 3D Lithography and Micro 3D printing applications. Both of these fields will be discussed in terms of the requirements on the fabrication process such as exposure strategy, overall resolution and accessible print height, among others. Enabling both 3D lithography and micro 3D printing in one TPP laser system imposes certain challenges, which will be addressed with solutions being presented.
Prof. Dr. Giulia Tagliabue
EPFL
Dr. Giulia Tagliabue is a Tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at EPFL. She joined the Engineering faculty in January 2019 and she is the head of the Laboratory of Nanoscience for Energy Technologies (LNET). She obtained her PhD in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zurich in 2015. From 2015 to 2018 she was a Swiss National Science Foundation Fellow and she carried on her postdoctoral research jointly at Caltech and the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP). Dr. Tagliabue’s research focuses on the study of fundamental mechanisms and nanophotonic-design strategies for light-energy conversion devices, with a special interest for light-energy storage systems. Dr. Tagliabue is the recipient of the First Prize of the Rising Stars of Light Award 2020 and the 2021 Early Career Award in Nanophotonics. In 2020 she was awarded an Eccellenza Grant from SNSF and in 2022 she received an SNSF Starting Grant. She is member of the Material Research Society (MRS), the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the Optical Society of America (Optica).
Leveraging Thermo-optical Effects in Nanoantennas and Metasurfaces
​
In the last decade, optical nanoantennas have revolutionized light manipulation and control at the nanoscale. Light absorption was initially considered a purely detrimental process, reducing the efficiency of optoelectronic devices. Recently, however, it has attracted growing interest, enabling novel light-energy conversion pathways and offering intriguing opportunities for reconfigurable systems. In this talk, I will discuss self-induced optical heating effects in highly absorbing Silicon (Si) and Germanium (Ge) nanoresonators. In particular, I will show recent calculations demonstrating that, due to thermos-optical effects, self-heating can give rise to a complex, non-linear relationship between illumination intensity and temperature, even for moderate illumination intensities relevant for applications such as Raman scattering. Subsequently, I will discuss how self-induced optical heating could be employed in optical devices and metasurfaces. Finally, I will discuss our recent effort in reducing the computational cost of photothermal calculations in 3D arrays of nanoantennas and highlight the importance of accounting for thermo-optical effects in the modelling .
Prof. Dr. Monika Fleischer
University of Tübingen
Monika Fleischer received her Ph.D. in physics from Eberhard Karls University Tübingen. After an invited professorship at the University of Technology Troyes, she joined the Institute for Applied Physics in Tübingen as a junior professor and was appointed full professor in 2019. She serves on the board of directors of the core facility Center for Light-Matter-Interaction, Sensors and Analytics (LISA+). Her research interests focus on plasmonic nanostructures, nanofabrication techniques, flexible plasmonics, optical spectroscopy, and the optical properties of hybrid nanosystems.
Plasmo-mechanics: Spectral properties of plasmonic nanostructures on flexible substrates
​
Plasmonic nanostructures exhibit strong electrical near-fields under illumination. If the near-fields of closely spaced nanoantennas couple across nanogaps, hybridization of the plasmon modes takes place. The coupling mode is shifted to longer wavelengths in sensitive dependence on the gap size. This effect is used in the field of plasmo-mechanics, where nanoantennas are prepared on flexible substrates. Deformations of the substrate under strain are directly observable in the spectral properties. Transfer techniques for the nanofabrication of different nanoantennas such as bowties, nanopyramids or nanorings on flexible polymers are presented together with their spectral investigation.
Prof. Dr. Edoardo Albisetti
Politecnico di Milano
Dr. Edoardo Albisetti is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics of Politecnico di Milano. He obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from Politecnico di Milano, visiting GeorgiaTech. He was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow at the CUNY ASRC and NUY in New York. Since 2021, he is PI of the ERC Starting Grant B3YOND. His research interests are in experimental condensed matter physics, at the intersection of nanofabrication, magnetism and nanoelectronics.
“Phase nanoengineering” via thermal scanning probe lithography
​
Searching for new methodologies and techniques for tailoring the physical properties of materials at the nanoscale is of crucial importance both for the discovery of new phenomena, and for harnessing their potential in applications. Here, we discuss the direct control of the physical properties of condensed matter systems using highly localized heating from a nanoscopic probe, for producing controlled phase changes, which in turn lead to finely tunable properties.
In particular, we focus on the reversible patterning of “spin textures” in ferromagnetic materials, achieved via thermally assisted magnetic scanning probe lithography (tam-SPL). Then, we show that tam-SPL written spin textures can be used effectively for controlling the emission, propagation and confinement of spin waves in magnonic devices.
Finally, we give an overview of future applications of phase nanoengineering in other contexts and systems. The direct, tunable nanoscale control of the physical properties of matter, with a focus on the implementation of new functionalities which are not achievable with conventional nanofabrication techniques, opens up several possibilities for the investigation and application of new phenomena.
Dr. Anthony Engler
Polymer Solutions Inc.
Dr. Anthony Engler is a postdoctoral fellow at Georgia Institute of Technology working on polymers for semiconductor processing, electrochemical energy devices, and sustainability. He cofounded and serves as Chief Technology Officer for Polymer Solutions Inc.
Thermal- and photo-degradable polyaldehyde copolymers for patterning applications
​
A family of high-resolution, photo-thermal resists based on low ceiling temperature copolymers has been developed and demonstrated in a variety of lithography processes. The polymeric resins are composed of low-ceiling temperature polyalaldehyde copolymers that can rapidly and cleanly decompose into volatile monomers when triggered by a chemical or physical stimulus. This transformation from macro- to small molecules enables dry pattern development, i.e. does not require liquid developers. We will discuss several efforts in applying these dry-develop resists into lithography processes, including investigation on greyscale laser writing, thermal scanning probe lithography of new commercial resists, and in situ hardmask formation.