January 30, 2015
Nanofabricated devices, optical nanoscopy, and nanoscale particles are three topics of increasing importance in modern technology, science, and commerce. Nanofabricated and microfabricated devices are enabling technologies, engineered to impose top-down control over nanoscale structure, transport, and function. Ideally, such devices are mass-produced for zero marginal cost and perform with perfect reliability. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2014 was awarded for the development of optical nanoscopy. A variety of related methods have brought light microscopy into the nanoscale for measurements in biology, materials, and engineering. Nanoscale particles have vast potential for commercial development. Bottom-up assembly, however, often requires the purification and characterization of products before application. In this colloquium, I will describe how we combine these three topics to solve related problems in the manufacturing and medical sectors of the national nanotechnology enterprise. I will focus on our use of optical nanoscopy to track nanoscale particles in, on, and around nanofabricated and microfabricated devices. In this way, we characterize the particles and test the devices.
Samuel M. Stavis is a Project Leader in the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He received a B.S.E. in Engineering Physics from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Cornell University, where he was also a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Biological and Environmental Engineering. At Cornell, Sam combined nanofluidic and spectroscopic methods to measure single biomolecules. He joined the NIST staff in 2007 as a National Research Council (NRC) Postdoctoral Research Associate. In the NIST Physical Measurement Laboratory, he engineered complex nanofluidic devices, advanced single molecule measurement science, and developed microfluidic nanomanufacturing processes. In 2012, Sam joined the CNST, where he is providing facility users with measurement methods combining nanofabricated devices, optical nanoscopy, and nanoscale particles for applications in manufacturing and medicine.