Nanotechnology Now - News Story: €8m Purse for 15 Early Researchers

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October 21st, 2009

€8m Purse for 15 Early Researchers

Abstract:
Announcing the first Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Starting Investigator Research Grant (SIRG) awards at the Royal College of Physicians yesterday, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation:

(Including)
Dr. Paul Eastham (Trinity College Dublin) €474,506.50
Title: Strong interactions and collective effects in semiconductor optoelectronics
Synopsis: Quantum dots are a kind of artificial atoms whose properties, e.g. the light they emit, can be manipulated in a very controlled manner. Quantum dots are nano-sized, man-made objects with a wide range of applications in optoelectronics, photonics and quantum computers. Dr Eastham and his team aim to investigate how quantum dots would interact with each other in laser or quantum computing devices.

Dr. Nikolay Petkov (Tyndall National Insititute) €530,734.30
Title: Tuning surface and dopant properties of silicon and germanium Nanowires for high performance nanowire based field-effect transistors
Synopsis: Over the years increased computer speed and capacity has been realized through a reduction of the size of the semiconductor components that make up the functional parts of the computers. The sizes are now nearing the nanometer regime where the components will have dimensions of no more than a few tens or hundreds of atoms. Nanotechnology, the manipulation of matter on an atomic scale, will in the next decade allow faster and more efficient computers. Dr Petkov and his team will contribute to the transition to nanotechnology computers by investigating nanowires made from silicon and germanium for use as transistors.

Dr. Ray Duffy (Tyndall National Institute) €562,546.80
Title: N-type doping in germanium for sub-20nm technology CMOS devices
Synopsis: One of the key factors in the coming of the modern Information Age has been the rapid increase of computational power. This has been led by the semiconductor device manufacturing industry which is constantly improving the speed and power of computer chips. This is done by manufacturing the components as small as possible. The state of the art in semiconductor device manufacturing is a process that creates features that are 45 nanometres wide. This proposal studies the use of germanium instead of silicon as one possible way to allow for sub 20 nanometre technologies.

Dr. Michael Nolan (Tyndall National Institute) €472,244.40
Title: Engineering Metal Oxide Interfaces For Renewable Energy Photocatalysis
Synopsis: Artificial photosynthesis is the process where light energy is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can then be used as a clean, renewable, easy to store, environmentally friendly fuel. Currently however the efficiency of the reaction is not high enough for the process to be viable. New materials could sufficiently improve the efficiency and speed of the reaction. The proposal will study metal oxides that have particular structures when measured on the nanometer scale. These metal oxides could be suitable new materials for the artificial photosynthesis process.