Industrial Outreach
Collaborators
NTT Basic Research
Laboratories (Japan): Three CSPIN students visited Yoshiro Hirayama's
group during the past three years. Each of the students stayed at NTT
for ~10 weeks to fabricate and characterize ballistic transport devices
made from heterostructures grown at CSPIN. This collaboration will continue
to work on several proposed quantum confined and spin devices.
Hitachi Global Storage
Technologies (San Jose, CA): During 2004, a CSPIN graduate student
spent 10 weeks at HGST's research laboratory in San Jose, California.
Under the guidance of Stephan Maat and Bruce Gurney, the student performed
experiments on prospective materials for read-head sensors. CSPIN scientists
will collaborate with HGST on magnetic sensor applications for mesoscopic
narrow gap devices. Narrow gap material will be grown at CSPIN. Device
fabrication and characterization will be carried out at Hitachi and CSPIN.
NEC Research Institute (Princeton,
NJ): CSPIN provided InSb quantum-well samples to Stuart
Solin's group (initially at NEC, now at Washington University in St.
Louis). The samples were fabricated into mesoscopic read head sensors
with significant room-temperature extraordinary magnetoresistance (EMR).
These devices were discussed in a recent article appearing in Scientific
American (July 2004).
NanoBioMagnetics Inc. (Oklahoma
City, OK): CSPIN has established a new collaboration with on super-paramagnetic
nanoparticles for force generation in biosystems. CSPIN's x-ray diffraction,
TEM, and XPS equipment will be used to study silica coated magnetite nanoparticles
for biological applications. The nanoparticles will be fabricated by Charles
Sweeney at NanoBioMagnetics and Kenneth Dormer at the OU Health Sciences
Center.
IBM Research
Laboratory (Yorktown Heights, NY): John Kirtley at IBM will perform
scanning squid microscopy on nanorings and other nanostructures made at
CSPIN from metals and superconductors patterned using anodized aluminum
oxide (AAO) templates.
Kodak, GE,
Quantum Dots, Kovio,
Nanosys, NN-Labs
: CSPIN's effort on colloidal nanoparticles has strong ties with several
industrial companies, ranging from industrial giants to startup companies.
These companies either provided financial support to the research group
(about $500K in the past two years from Kodak, Quantum Dots, and NN-Labs)
or are interested in the intellectual property generated by the research
group.
Collaborations with Government and National Laboratories
Army Research
Laboratory (Adelphi, MD): CSPIN scientists provide samples and scientific
exchange with Gary Wood.
Air Force Research Laboratory
CSPIN scientists provide samples and scientific exchange with Doug Craig.
Sandia National Laboratories
(Albuquerque, NM) AAO templates are used by CSPIN to etch nanoholes
in GaAs quantum wells grown at Sandia National Laboratories. The transport
properties of the resulting nano-textured 2D electron system are studied
at Sandia by Michael Lilly.
Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (Livermore,
CA): A CSPIN student spent two months with visiting Eric Stach's group.
The student fabricated indented GaAs samples, characterized them by TEM,
and is now using them as templates for organized MBE growth.
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
(Tallahassee, FL): CSPIN scientists are regular participants in the NHMFL
users program. Transport and optical properties of materials grown at
CSPIN have been studied at magnetic fields up to 32T.
Local Industry Initiatives
The research performed at CSPIN has had a significant impact on local
industry through the founding of three small companies. CSPIN has utilized
the infrastructure provided by the UA Innovation Incubator (I2) to advance
its research successes into commercialization. I2 provides its clients
with a graduate student for I2 months and $6K for materials or other expenses.
In the past three years, I2 has supported two client proposals originating
from CSPIN research. Nanoferr Inc. (Salamo and Bellaiche) focuses on the
development of layered ferroelectric structures; and Minotaur Inc. (Xiao)
focuses on development of sensing technologies. I2 has also worked on
the commercialization of ten patents disclosures made by Salamo, Bellaiche,
Fu, Peng and Xiao.
Peng is the founder of Nanomaterials and Nanofabrication Laboratories
(NN-Labs) which has licensed the intellectual property generated by his
research group and is actively commercializing colloidal nanocrystals.
Since NN-Labs began an active phase in July 2002, it has received two
Phase II SBIR awards. NN-Labs has already marketed two complete product
lines and three partial product lines during the last year. With eight
employees, NN-Labs is currently seeking three more fulltime additions
as they begin executing on Phase II programs. With support from the State
of Arkansas and the University of Arkansas through its Genesis Technology
Incubator, NN-Labs is rapidly growing into a significant high-tech startup
company in this traditionally rural state.
C-SPIN will continue to generate research commercialization activities
in technology-based startup businesses. Progress is expected to accelerate
as new research and technology parks are being launched at both campuses.
In fact, on the OU campus, McCann and his company, EKIPS Technologies,
are charter participants in the newly planned research park just south
of the main campus.
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