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.
The new system is part of the newly established Münster Nanofabrication Facility at Münster University – a modern nanotechnology centre which houses equipment for nanofabrication and which can be used by researchers working in the fields of Chemistry, Physics, Biology and Medicine, as well as by those from other departments. “The various research groups in the SoN and beyond now have entirely new possibilities,” says Prof. Wolfram Pernice, who in the coming years will be testing the VELION system with his team in order to develop it further. In addition, the specialists from Raith will be coming to Münster University regularly to optimise processes and test the functionality of the system.
In the Center for Soft Nanoscience, which was inaugurated in November 2018 and has almost 8,000 square metres of floor space, there are twelve interdisciplinary teams using modern nanoanalytical methods in their work. The research groups probe the workings of functional materials and the self-organized structure of synthetic materials with desired functionality.