Nano-scientists get new large-scale equipment

The new ion beam lithography system at the Center for Soft Nanoscience at Münster University. WWU - MünsterView Production of minute structures with gold and silicon ions / 840,000 euros from the German Research Foundation and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia Investigating and developing nanosystems - i.e. structures which are a thousand times smaller than the diameter of a human hair - is something which occupies researchers collaborating from a variety of disciplines at the University of Münster. They now have at their disposal a special new piece of equipment for their research work: it goes by the name of VELION and is being funded by the German Research Foundation and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia to the tune of 840,000 euros. The researchers are benefiting from collaboration with the Raith company in Dortmund, which has developed and produced the nanofabrication instrument and whose specialists are now working together with the Münster researchers in developing the system further. From the outside, the instrument, located on the ground floor of the Center for Soft Nanoscience (SoN) at Münster University, is just a grey cupboard the size of two wardrobes - but inside there is a lot going on. The centrepiece of the equipment is a focused ion beam and a scanning electron microscope. The ion beam enables structures to be "written" in thin layers - for example, to produce circuits on chips.