Nanotechnology Group

The University of California, Irvine (UCI) Nanotechnology Group is a research group at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UCI. It is one of the many groups affiliated with UCI's Integrated Nanosystems Research Facility (INRF), a cross-disciplinary research facility founded to promote engineered nanoscale systems through collaboration among researchers from the physical sciences, engineering, biology, communications, and other related fields. In particular, INRF focuses on biomedical, communications, and networking technologies and applications, applications which serve the mutual interest of, and depends on the input from traditionally disparate fields (like engineering and biology). INRF has been active in pursuing collaborations with commercial/industrial partners.

The UCI Nanotechnology Group specifically focuses on short-term problems and observations of nanoscale phenomena. Research projects include:

• An attempt to create an enzyme that will synthesize a carbon nanotube, through molecular biology, cloning, and enzyme engineering.
• Observation of the excitation of electrons in carbon nanotubes to determine whether it is a one-dimensional plasmon, which has been forecast but never observed.
• Using nanotubes as antennae to transmit information to and from nanosystems wirelessly.
• Harnessing two-dimensional plasmons for use in high-frequency electronic devices, and the study of the nonlinear effects of such plasmons at cryogenic temperatures (cold enough to decrease the scattering frequency of electrons).
• Lab-on-a-chip applications (a type of micro-electromechanical systems [MEMS] device that performs laboratory functions on a chip less than a few square centimeters in size) that use dielectrophoresis, a method of manipulating particles and cells by exerting a force on a nonconducting (dielectric) particle subjected to a nonuniform electric field. Microfabricated electrodes produced at INFR are used to manipulate living cells in a solution, in a way that it is hoped will eventually allow preparation of biological specimens on a chip before chemical, optical, and electric analysis.
• The world's first working nanoscale radio system, a carbon nanotube radio built on the same principles as a crystal diode radio.

Recent publications by Nanotechnology Group members include an article by L. Zheng and colleagues titled, “Nanotube-Peptide Interactions on a Silicon Chip,” and “Nano-Electromagnetics: Circuit and Electromagnetic Properties of Carbon Nanotubes” by C. Rutherglen and P.J. Burke. The group is led by Peter Burke, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.