The Spring 2012 CINT Call for Proposals will be announced by March 1 with a proposal submission deadline of March 31.

The database is open for Rapid Access proposals. These should be limited in scope and have strong justification for expedited processing.

 

Happening at CINT

Awards and honors

CINT Scientist Steve Doorn and CINT Distinguished Affiliate Amit Misra have recently been recognized for their scientific contriubutions at LANL. .

Steve was awarded the 2011 Fellows Prize for Research. Here is a snippet from the press release:
Stephen Doorn is an intellectual leader in carbon nanotube spectroscopy and is best known in the nanotube community for his groundbreaking advances in Raman spectroscopy of nanotubes, with many examples of “first-ever” types of experiments. He has distinguished himself with numerous scientific accomplishments in the area of spectroscopic studies of carbon nanomaterials, particularly single-walled carbon nanotubes.

And Amit was selected as a 2011 LANL Laboratory Fellow. Fellows are honored for their sustained high-level achievements in programs of importance to the Lab. Amit Misra has had a tremendous impact on the field of structural materials. He has pioneered the development of metal nanostructured multilayers for a range of structural applications, and he has defined this class of materials as a critical platform for understanding the underlying principles that drive new discoveries. His work on plastic flow stability provided theinsight into the development of damage-tolerant nanocomposites that is being explored in the Energy Frontier Research Center at Materials and Irradiation Extremes, for which he now serves as director. For more information, please see the press release.

Congratulations, Steve and Amit!

 

Science Highlights:

 

Jan 2012 Publication from CINT Users at U Penn - Nanorod Assemblies in Polymer Films and Their Dispersion- Dependent Optical Properties

nanorod assemblies

Optical absorption due to surface plasmon resonances in ensembles of gold nanorods (Au NRs) depends strongly on the nanorod separation and orientation. Here, we study the dispersion of polystyrene-functionalized Au NRs in polystyrene (PS) thin films using UV−visible (UV−vis) spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and find that Au NRs are dispersed for brush chain lengths that exceed the PS matrix chain length and are aggregated otherwise. Monte Carlo simulations using parameters from classical density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that this behavior is due to substantial depletion−attraction forces for brush chain lengths that are much smaller than the PS matrix chain length. Both UV−vis measurements and discrete dipole approximation (DDA) calculations confirm that optical absorption is a facile method to determine nanorod morphology in nanocomposite films (i.e., aggregation or dispersion). Futhermore, a dispersion map is constructed showing the conditions required for nanorod dispersion and, correspondingly, the optical absorption properties of Au NR:PS nanocomposites. Using this information, optically active materials with tunable morphologies can be fabricated and routinely characterized using optical spectroscopic methods.

Full article was published in the January 2012 ACS Macro Letters.

Contact: Amalie Frischknecht

 

 

CINT User Science featured in Nature Nanotechnology

Los Alamos scientists detect and track single molecules with nanoscale carbon cylinders

carbon nanotubes

The electronic properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes can be altered by surface adsorption of electronic impurities or dopants. However, fully understanding the influence of these impurities is difficult because of the inherent complexity of the solution-based colloidal chemistry of nanotubes, and because of a lack of techniques for directly imaging dynamic processes involving these impurities. Here, CINT Users Jared Crochet and Juan Duque, along with CINT Scientists Jim Werner and Steve Doorn show that photoluminescence microscopy can be used to image exciton quenching in semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes during the early stages of chemical doping with two different species. The addition of AuCl3 leads to localized exciton-quenching sites, which are attributed to a mid-gap electronic impurity level, and the adsorbed species are also found sometimes to be mobile on the surface of the nanotubes. The addition of H2O2 leads to delocalized exciton-quenching hole states, which are responsible for long-range photoluminescence blinking, and are also mobile.

See the LANL Press Release.


Artist's concept of nanotubes on the liquid surface. Image from Los Alamos National Laboratory

 

Departing CINT Scientists

In December, CINT had three scientist leave the user facility. Andy Shreve has taken a job as the Director for the Center for Biomedical Engineering at the University of New Mexico. Bruce Bunker has retired after a long and productive career at Sandia National Laboratory. Amit Misra will remain at LANL, but is taking over as the Director for the Center for Materials at Irradiation and Mechanical Extremes (an Energy Frontier Research Center).

We sincerely appreciate the great science and leadership that Andy, Bruce and Amit have brought to CINT. They will be missed. We wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors.

Ongoing user projects with Andy, Bruce, or Amit as lead CINT Scientist will be assigned to other CINT staff for the duration of the projects. Please contact Heather Brown for details.

 

CINT Job Advertisements

Soft Biological and Composite Nanomaterials Thrust Leader
CINTis seeking outstanding candidates for the position of Thrust Leader for the Soft, Biological, and Composite Nanomaterials (SBCN) Thrust.The SBCN Thrust Leader reports to the CINT Group Leader at Los Alamos National Laboratory which is organizationally a part of the Materials Physics and Applications Division. As an integral part of the CINT management team, the Thrust Leader is responsible for technical leadership and coordination of the scientific program within their Thrust Area, integration between Thrust Areas, and tactical and strategic planning for all aspects of CINT operations. For more information, please see the job ad.

CINT Scientist
CINT is seeking outstanding candidates for the position of CINT Scientist to fill a vacancy in nanofabrication (e-beam writing & FIB) at the Core facility. This position will reside in the Nanophotonics and Optical Nanomaterials Thrust.

Please go to Sandia’s job website and search (in the Advanced Search page) for position #638119 for more details.

Postdocs
We have a number of postdoctoral positions available. Please see the Sandia and Los Alamos job websites and search for CINT.


2010 Annual Report

Please check out the CINT 2010 Annual Report.

 

more highlights...

One Scientific Community Focused on Nanoscience Integration

The Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT) is a Department of Energy/Office of Science Nanoscale Science Research Center (NSRC) operating as a national user facility devoted to establishing the scientific principles that govern the design, performance, and integration of nanoscale materials. Through its Core Facility in Albuquerque and Gateway to Los Alamos Facility, CINT provides open access to tools and expertise needed to explore the continuum from scientific discovery to the integration of nanostructures into the micro- and macro world.