Following its first series of seminars in India (in Bangalore) in 2012, UK-based equipment maker Oxford Instruments has completed its second series of seminars. Focussed on nanotechnology tools and their use in multiple fields, more than 500 people registered overall during the two latest events. With a key theme of 'Tooling Nano', the seminars took place first at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali, followed by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay Mumbai.
At each venue, two parallel sessions focussed on fabrication and analysis methods, with scientific and technology papers on a wide range of topics in each technical area. As well as technical experts from Oxford Instruments, the sessions included guest international speakers from the University of Cambridge and University of Bath in the UK, TU Delft in The Netherlands, TATA Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, IIT Bombay, and IISER Mohali.
"These seminars were well thought-out with an excellent balance of specialist speakers covering a wide variety of processes and tools for nanofabrication and nanoanalysis," comments professor Ananth Venkatesan of IISER Mohali, who hosted the Mohali event and spoke at IIT Bombay.
"Events such as this are an excellent opportunity not just for our researchers at IIT Bombay to learn about latest techniques but also for our colleagues outside this establishment to network and keep up to date with scientific advances," says professor V.Ramgopal Rao of IIT Bombay. "The Graphene plenary session with the keynote talk by Ravi Sundaram, Marie Curie Research Fellow, Cambridge University, was an excellent overview on many aspects of this growing field of research."
The Fabrication sessions discussed the latest etch and deposition technological advances, including atomic layer deposition (ALD), magnetron sputtering, inductively coupled plasma (ICP) plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD), nanoscale etch, micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS), and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).
The Analysis sessions covered topics and technologies including ultra-high-vacuum scanning probe microscopy (SPM), cryo-free low-temperature solutions, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)/electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis (ESCA), an introduction to atomic force microscopy (AFM) and applications such as nanomechanics, in-situ heating and tensile characterization using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), measuring layer thicknesses and compositions using energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), nanomanipulation and fabrication within the SEM/FIB.
