Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies

Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies
Name	Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies
Established	2006
Location	Albuquerque, New Mexico; Los Alamos, New Mexico
Type	Federally funded research and user facility
Affiliations	Sandia National Laboratories; Los Alamos National Laboratory; United States Department of Energy

Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies.

The Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies is a United States Department of Energy user facility operated jointly by Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory that provides instrumentation, expertise, and collaborative programs for nanoscale science and technology. It serves academic, industrial, and national laboratory researchers and connects to national initiatives such as the National Nanotechnology Initiative, linking capabilities in nanofabrication, microscopy, and materials characterization. The center supports research relevant to energy technologies, quantum materials, microelectronics, and biomolecular systems through user access, partnerships, and workforce development.

Overview

The center was established to integrate nanoscale synthesis, characterization, and theory, drawing on expertise from Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the United States Department of Energy, the National Nanotechnology Initiative, the Office of Science, the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, and collaborating universities such as the University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University, and Arizona State University. It positions itself alongside national facilities like Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Brookhaven National Laboratory, and complements centers such as the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, the Molecular Foundry, and the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research. Stakeholders include industry partners like Intel, IBM, Microsoft, Google, and academic consortia including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Harvard University, and the California Institute of Technology.

Facilities and Capabilities

Major capabilities at the Albuquerque and Los Alamos sites include cleanroom nanofabrication, transmission electron microscopy, scanning probe microscopy, X-ray spectroscopy, focused ion beam systems, chemical vapor deposition, atomic layer deposition, and ultrafast laser spectroscopy. Instrumentation is comparable to assets at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne, the National Center for Electron Microscopy, and the Nanoscience Centre at Cambridge. The center supports device fabrication workflows used by companies like Applied Materials, Lam Research, KLA Corporation, and ASML, and measurement techniques akin to those at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and the CERN research complex. Specialized capabilities include cryogenic probe stations, dilution refrigerators, spin-resonance spectrometers, and high-resolution aberration-corrected microscopes used in collaborations with Bell Labs, Fujitsu, Samsung, and Toshiba.

Research Programs and Thrusts

Research thrusts span quantum materials, two-dimensional materials, topological insulators, spintronics, nanoelectromechanical systems, energy conversion, catalysis, and biomolecular interfaces. Projects intersect with topics pursued by researchers at Princeton University, Yale University, Columbia University, the University of California Berkeley, the University of California San Diego, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The center hosts studies on graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, perovskite photovoltaics, solid-state qubits, superconducting circuits, and memristive devices with relevance to DARPA initiatives, the National Science Foundation, and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Collaborations include theoretical efforts referencing models from MIT, Caltech, the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter, and the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, and experimental campaigns linked to projects at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, RIKEN, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.

Collaborations and Partnerships

The center maintains partnerships with national laboratories, universities, and corporations, enabling user projects from groups at the University of Texas at Austin, Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, Rice University, and Carnegie Mellon University. Industry engagement includes consortia with Honeywell, Northrop Grumman, General Electric, Boston Scientific, and Thermo Fisher Scientific. International collaborations involve institutions such as the University of Tokyo, Imperial College London, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, and the National University of Singapore. It participates in multi-institution programs with the DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences, the Energy Frontier Research Centers, the Materials Genome Initiative, the Quantum Information Science program, and the Semiconductor Research Corporation.

Education and Outreach

Education and outreach programs target students and professionals through internships, postdoctoral appointments, workshops, and user training in partnership with community colleges, tribal colleges, and universities including Sandia’s K-12 STEM initiatives, the Udall Center, and statewide workforce programs. The center offers hands-on experience similar to internships at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and contributes to curriculum development with institutions such as the Community College of Southern Nevada and Central New Mexico Community College. Public engagement includes lectures, tours, and seminars with speakers drawn from the National Academy of Sciences, the American Physical Society, the Materials Research Society, and the American Chemical Society.

Governance and Funding

Governance is provided jointly by Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory under funding from the United States Department of Energy’s Office of Science, with competitive grants from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, and private foundations. Oversight and advisory input are provided by committees with representatives from the DOE, university partners such as the University of California system, consortium members like the Semiconductor Research Corporation, and stakeholders from corporate partners including Micron Technology and Texas Instruments. Financial and policy frameworks align with federal research policies, peer-reviewed proposal mechanisms, and user-access models used at other national user facilities such as the Molecular Foundry, Center for Functional Nanomaterials, and the National Synchrotron Light Source II.

Category:United States Department of Energy national laboratories Category:Nanotechnology research centers Category:Sandia National Laboratories Category:Los Alamos National Laboratory