The Nanoscience Institute-CNR and the Scuola Normale Superiore will work together in xPRINT under the unique cross-disciplinary infrastructure of the NEST facility in Pisa.
The equipment and the advanced instrumentation available at NEST laboratory will be fully available for the xPRINT activities, including:
- A nanofabrication facility, which currently relies on a class 1000/10000 clean room (~ 120 sqm) equipped with reactive ion etching systems, evaporators (both thermal and electron beam), mask aligners, optical lithographies, scanning electron microscopy for characterization.
- A molecular device fabrication facility, for the synthesis and film technology of organics, including glove boxes, fume-hoods for the fabrication of nanoparticles (metallic, semiconductor and oxides), spin coating, complete device characterization (integrating sphere for efficiency measurements, contact inspection, input-output characteristics).
- A spectroscopy facility, based on spatially resolved spectroscopies (micro-PL), photoluminescence excitation, optical gain measurements, fs and ns spectroscopies, Raman spectroscopy.
- Laboratory of soft matter nanotechnologies, with state-of-the-art equipment for soft lithography (mo-torized fluid injection, nanoimprinting press, multilevel soft lithography) and electrospinning.
- Scanning probe and microscopy lab, including AFM/STM systems, confocal optical microscopy, and scanning electron microscopies.
The modelling tasks of xPRINT are developed at Technion by the NanoEnginnering group, which performs research in the area of molecular engineering of soft matter, in particular the development of process-structure-property relationships, through the use of simulation and experiment, and the development of functional nano-structures.
xPRINT equipment.
Two new laboratories dedicated to the xPRINT activities have been set-up at the NEST center in Pisa. The new experimental facilities are dedicated to additive manufacturing of functional materials and to the characterization of 3D printed structures.
-Laboratory for additive manufacturing, with state-of-the-art 3D printing systems which include:
- Laser stereolitography, mod. Andromeda (Sharebot).
- Digital light processing, mod. Perfactory Micro Hi-Res PLUS (Envisiontec).
- Fused deposition modeling, mod. ONE+400 (Roboze).
- Filament extruder, mod. Noztek Pro High Temperature Extruder (Noztek).
- 3D Robotic dispenser, mod. F5200 (Fisnar).
- Film deposition through spincoating (Laurell) and doctor blade (mod. Coatmaster 510, Erichsen)
- Fume-hoods for preparation of photosensitive pre-polymers and inks.
-Laboratory for spectroscopic characterization of photoactive materials, equipped with:
- Femtosecond laser system, composed by a Mira 900 and Legend pumped by a Verdi V10 and Evolution lasers respectively (Coherent).
- Streak camera, mod. C10910 (Hamamatsu).
- CW laser system, mod. L6Cc (Oxiuss).
- Monochromator (mod. IHR320) and CCD detector (mod. Synapse) for Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopies, (Horiba).