Research

Material Sciences

Title :

Designing and fabrication of an aerodynamic lens for nanoparticles of variable size

Area of research :

Physical Sciences, Engineering Sciences, Material Sciences

Focus area :

Manufacturing Automation and Technologies

Principal Investigator :

Dr. Vandana Sharma, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad

Contact info :

Details

Executive Summary :

The proposal describes the design and fabrication of a compact particle (micro/nano particles) concentrator, also known as aerodynamic lens, to form a jet of particles in vacuum, to be applied to develop instrumentation for aerosol analysis and deposition systems. A pure particle beam with multiple applications in nanostructured material synthesis, microscale device fabrication, spectroscopy, analysis of heavy molecules such as proteins, creation of three dimensional microstructures, implanting of large metal ions etc will therefore be generated. With concentrated (‘focussed’) particle beam sizes of 0.3 mm, large-scale 3D writing and microstructuring processes in device fabrication can be realized. We propose to combine the lens with an electron impact mass spectrometer to develop a compact instrument to analyze the chemical composition of nanoparticles or aerosols. The robust and compact instrument will be designed for deployment on mobile systems, terrestrial and airborne. Our industry partner H Fillunger and Co Pvt Ltd having extensive experience in vacuum systems, plasma deposition systems etc will collaborate in the fabrication of the lens system. In this collaboration we also propose the development of a methodology for deposition of thin and uniform layers on surfaces for additive fabrication of microstructures using the lens system.

Co-PI:

Prof. M Krishnamurthy, Professor, TIFR Center for Interdisciplinary Sciences Hyderabad, Prof. N Venkat Reddy, Professor, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad, Dr. Saket Asthana, Associate Professor, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad, Dr. Sivarama Krishnan, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai, Dr. Manish K Niranjan, Associate Professor, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad, Dr. Ram Gopal, TIFR Center for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Hyderabad

Total Budget (INR):

51,20,000

Organizations involved