2009 Annual Report Vol.37 - 中研院物理研究所 - Academia Sinica

Nanoscience Research Group
Nanoscience and nanotechnology have become one of the major research focuses in the
Institute. Owing to the diverse nature of condensed matter physics, in past years we have
largely placed our own effort on individual research interests and, indeed, various
significant impacts have been made. During these last few years, a core facility has been
set up with the support of both National Nano Program and Academia Sinica. In order to
build on our strengths and tighten up our endeavors along the way, we have emphasized
the following directions:
(i) Study on energy-related transport and thermoelectric properties in nanostructured
materials;
(ii) Characterization and manipulation of a single nanostructure or bio-molecule with
atomic precision;
(iii) Development of state-of-the-art research instruments and tools for nano-science,
and for the detection and manipulation of single biomolecules;
(iv) Study on biomolecular interactions using micro/nanofluidic devices.
(v) Theoretical modeling, calculations and simulations of nano-system.
The followings are the research groups that involve in various nanoscience researches
and summaries of their research activities:
(1) Surface Physics and Nanoscale Microscopy
This research group includes five faculty members and four joint appointment
faculty members and routinely maintains a size of around 50 researchers comprised of
visiting scholars, post-doctors, assistants, and students. We have established several
major research tools such as scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), atomic force
microscopy (AFM), field ion microscopy (FIM), transmission electron microscopy
(TEM), X-ray microscopy and etc. In the past years, our focus has been on studying
quantum phenomena associated with ultrathin metal films, control and tailoring of
carbon nanotubes, imaging and force measurements of biological molecules,
properties and applications of single atom tips, development of precision tools and
instruments, and imaging the live cells with X-ray microscopy. In next five years,
we plan to make progress in imaging a single biomolecule on a substrate with UHV
STM/AFM system; analyzing the real-time correlation between the functionality of a
quantum dot or quantum wire and its structure with the TEM/STM combined system;
investigating the surface spin at the atomic scale with ultra-low temperature STM
equipped with superconducting magnet; improving the resolution of x-ray radiology
to 10 nanometers; and modeling nanomaterials with calculations and simulations.
18