It’s been a busy couple of months, with QMI members receiving recognition for their research and academic achievements.

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In May, graduate student Ehsanur Rahman (Nojeh group) received an NSERC Vanier scholarship to support his PhD research on work function reduction of the carbon nanotube ensemble through surface treatment for enhanced thermionic electron emission. The research has implications for future developments in electron sourcing and energy harvesting.

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At the annual meeting of the Microscopical Society of Canada, Shreyas Patankar and Alan Maigné received a best poster prize for their conference paper, Cathodoluminescence spectro-microscopy of carbon nanotube forests. Cathodoluminescence microscopy is a technique that measures the optical properties of matter with a finer resolution than that allowed by the diffraction limit of photons. In this technique, emitted light is measured by a material that is energized by a focused electron beam with a spatial resolution of a few nanometers. Research by Shreyas and team has produced preliminary data from the first ever measurement of cathodoluminescence from free-standing carbon nanotubes — which may contain signatures of novel quantum phenomena such as excitons and plasmons.

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Casimir Kuzyk, Gabriel Robinson-Leith, Mike Chang, Alexander Dimitrakopoulos and team also received a best poster prize at the 63rd International Conference on Electron, Ion, and Photon Beam Technology and Nanofabrication for their work, AweSEM: Removing Barriers to Innovation with a Tabletop, Low-Cost SEM. The goal of this project is to develop a low-cost, atmospheric scanning electron microscope that can be used in fields including, but not limited to, microelectronics, materials engineering, and medical diagnostics. The group has successfully demonstrated an initial prototype with scanning transmission mode imaging and resolution on the order of 5 microns.

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, ,, , , , , , , Alireza Nojeh and Casimir Kuzyk in the Nanostructure Lab

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, ,, , , , , , , These are the first images taken with the AweSEM™ prototype. They show scanning transmission images taken with the sample held at atmospheric pressure. The resolution is on the order of a few tens of micrometers. The group hopes to improve this resolution down to 1 micrometer in the near future.

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Story: Sophia Han
, Photography: Sophia Han
, Contact: communications@qmi.ubc.ca