NanoTechnology: Materials, Processes & Devices

Research that includes:

  • Development of nanostructure fabrication technology
  • Nanomagnetics, Microphotonics
  • CMOS Integrated Nanowires/Nanotubes (CMOS-Inn)

BPNX1064: Annealed Al/AlOx/Al Josephson Junctions for High-Coherence Merged-Element Superconducting Qubits (New Project)

Darius F. Vera
Leo Sementilli
Kerry Yu
2026

Superconducting transmon qubits are one of the most promising platforms to realize fault-tolerant quantum computing and allow a rich parameter space of highly configurable qubit properties with various circuit elements. Ultra thin amorphous oxide tunnel barriers (such as Al/AlOx/Al) known as Josephson junctions (JJ) provide essential nonlinearity to the qubit energy landscape. Precise control over the morphology of these thin amorphous oxide tunnel barriers remains a significant challenge despite its critical role in determining structural and transport properties. Furthermore, materials...

BPNX1062: Coherent Quantum Emitter Creation via Delta Doped Silicon-On-Insulator Photonics (New Project)

Enrique Garcia
Hanbin Song
Lukasz Komza
2026

Color centers in solid-state materials are promising candidates as single-photon emitters for quantum information technologies. For color centers in silicon, ion implantation and subsequent annealing are used to create emitters in wafers at a desired density. However, ion implantation introduces damage and additional defects into the silicon lattice, potentially impacting charge environments local to color centers. In this project, we focus on the creation of silicon T centers, which are point defects composed of two carbon atoms, and one hydrogen atom. We propose to use epitaxially grown...

BPNX1059: Electric Field Control of Quantum Emitters in Silicon (New Project)

Lukasz Komza
Hanbin Song
Niccolo Fiaschi
Enrique Garcia
Ahmet Oguz Sakin
2026

Color centers in silicon are promising building blocks for photonic quantum processors. The T center, with its long spin coherence and telecom-band optical transitions, is a particularly compelling candidate for quantum repeater and memory applications. However, the impact of local charges and spins introduced during device integration remains poorly understood. In this work, we develop a silicon photonics platform that enables probing of single T centers under applied electric and magnetic fields, allowing systematic investigation of Stark shifts and ionization dynamics. These...

BPNX1046: Multi-Material DLP Printing for 3D Electronics via Selective Deposition

Shuo Zhang
David Hahn
Haotian Lu
Ju Young Park
Wenjie (Jeff) Li
Jiayan Zhang
2026

The development of 3D MEMS devices has enabled innovative sensor designs with enhanced functionality, yet conventional fabrication methods often impose geometric and process limitations. This work presents a micro-3D-printed tactile sensor, integrating 3D piezoelectric, capacitive, conductive and dielectric elements with a compliant mechanism to achieve high sensitivity and force decoupling capability. The sensor is fabricated using a multi-material digital light processing (DLP) method, followed by selective metallization to define conductive regions, enabling seamless...

BPN980: Spin-Photon Interfaces in Silicon Photonics

Hanbin Song
Lukasz Komza
Niccolo Fiaschi
Xueyue (Sherry) Zhang
Yu-Lung Tang
Yiyang Zhi
2026

Point defects in crystalline materials can introduce localized defects states with optical transitions, creating color centers. Color centers in silicon have recently shown their potential as telecom-band single photon emitters. Leveraging the mature semiconductor fabrication techniques, silicon color centers can be fabricated on a large scale and are compatible with integrated photonics. Among all the silicon color centers investigated so far, T centers provide a spin-photon interface suitable for quantum networking and communication applications. In this project, we demonstrate coherent...

BPNX1072: Fabrication of Porous Metal Oxides via Copolymer Templating for High-Performance Gas Sensors (New Project)

Tzu-Chiao Wei
YoungJun Kim
HyoJun Min
Yaprak Ozbakir
Carlo Carraro
2026

Metal oxide semiconductors (MOX) are widely utilized in chemiresistive gas sensing owing to their exceptional stability and versatility. Integrating porosity into these materials is critical for enhancing performance, as it expands the surface area available for gas interaction. By providing a greater number of active sites, these porous structures improve overall sensitivity and facilitate rapid gas-surface exchanges, leading to optimized response and recovery times. In this study, we utilized an amphiphilic block copolymer as a template to engineer the porous structure of SnO2...

BPNX1071: Machine Learning for Targeted Discovery of Selective Gas-Sensing Materials (New Project)

Jiaxin Liu
2026

Chemiresistive gas sensors play a critical role in environmental monitoring, industrial safety, and medical diagnostics, where high selectivity toward specific target analytes is of paramount importance but remains challenging. Among various sensing materials, SnO₂ is one of the most widely used materials in commercial gas-sensing platforms due to its high sensitivity, low cost, and technological maturity. Conventional strategies to improve selectivity in SnO₂-based sensors primarily rely on metal doping or loading, which modulates surface reactions and electronic...

BPNX1057: Micromechanical Resonator Aging Rate Reduction

Kathy Doan
Xintian Liu
Kevin H. Zheng
2026

This project aims to demonstrate superior aging-resistance for micromechanical resonators via methods that remove or immobilize defects and other non-idealities towards a lower material energy state. One such method to be explored is localized annealing, whereby fast, high-temperature Joule heating at the micron scale provides a method for tailoring the morphology of a resonator's structural material.

Project is currently funded by: Federal

BPNX1049: Diamond Micromechanics

Kevin H. Zheng
Neil Chen
William Dong
2026

While silicon has been the workhorse for much of the MEMS sensor industry, it has its shortcomings when compared to other materials that might be used, namely diamond. Diamond has advantages over silicon in Young’s modulus, quality factor, and surface inertness, all of which could contribute to improved MEMS device performance. This project specifically employs diamond to increase the velocity of resonant mechanical structures towards better performance for sensors and frequency control devices.

Project is currently funded by: Federal

BPNX1028: Scalable Low-Temperature Processing of Chalcogen and Chalcogenide for Infrared Luminescence

Shu Wang
Naoki Higashitarumizu
2026

Scalable growth and processing of high-quality semiconductors, the active component of devices, is the foundation of modern electronics. We are interested in chalcogen and chalcogenide, with their appealing optical properties in infrared and potential low-temperature wafer-scale production, as promising material for optoelectronics. In this project, we develop new methods for controlled and scalable production of optically active tellurium, telluride, and other chalcogenide.

Project is currently funded by: Federal