Surfaces and Interfaces at the Nanoscale
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Leader: Prof. Adam Foster
Many technological applications depend crucially on surface rather than bulk material properties, and the study of surfaces has become an important field within condensed matter physics. A few prominent examples are immediately evident - the environmental degradation of high-Tc superconductors; bonding between grains of alumina in sintered ceramics; passivation of metal surfaces against corrosion; biomedical substrates; improving and designing new solid-state gas sensors for pollution monitoring and control; studying electrode/electrolyte interfaces in fuel cells. In microelectronics, the ability to produce and control almost atomically perfect silicon surfaces has allowed the interface engineering crucial in fabricating transistors at the nanoscale - and this control of surface properties remains a crucial element in the development of the next generation of microelectronic devices. More recently, increased confidence in manipulation and fabrication of atomic structures on surfaces has opened the field of nano or molecular electronics and magnetism, with great technological potential. In each of these cases, and in many other applications where surface properties are important, understanding and controlling surface physics at the atomic scale is the fundamental developmental goal required for optimization and, in cases like nanoelectronics, realization.
In the SIN group we apply various atomistic and quantum mechanical simulation methods to study surface and interface physics at the nanoscale, with particular emphasis on working closely with experimentalists and technologists. Our research topics vary from Scanning Probe Microscopy, nanoscale studies of friction and nanomanipulation to nanocatalysis, wet chemical etching and carbon nanotubes - including methodological development as well as direct simulation. For more information on the group please follow the links at the top, and you can also check our previous pages at the Helsinki University of Technology (Aalto).