Young Researchers Exchange Program (2006/3/5-18)

The 3rd Japan-US Young Researchers Exchange Program on Nanotechnology

The Japan-US Young Researchers Exchange Program on Nanotechnology is a joint project of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan and the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States to promote mutual research exchanges among young researchers of the two countries in the nanotechnology field and to help them build personal networks. Thirteen young Japanese researchers were chosen through open applications to participate in the third exchange program. Led by Profs Yoshinobu Aoyagi and Kazuhito Furuya at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, the group visited nanotechnology-related research facilities in the US for about two weeks from March 5, 2006, and exchanged information with their US counterparts at these laboratories and workshops. The facilities which the group visited were the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Northwestern University, Cornell University, University of California, Santa Barbara, Stanford University and University of California, Los Angeles.

The group visited the Evanston campus of Northwestern University on March 10. They were received by Prof. Manijeh Razeghi, director at the university’s Center for Quantum Device. Her laboratory has an infrared cascade laser, an infrared detector based on a Type II Super Lattice, a quantum dot infrared device, a III-Nitride semiconductor ultraviolet device and other instruments. Some 20 associate professors, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students work at his laboratory, and more than half of them are from China, South Korea, Middle East nations and other foreign countries. The professor told the visitors that the ratio of Japanese students to the total number of foreign graduate students at US universities has been declining sharply as a result of a surging number of students from China and South Korea.

Dr. Kenichiro Tanaka, a special postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), and five other Japanese researchers presented their research in a workshop at the university. Dr. Rod Ruoff introduced his research on mechanical engineering and all other participants from Prof. Razeghi’s laboratory made brief presentations on four research themes at her laboratory. Prof. Razeghi obtains a substantial amount of research funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), NSF and private companies to run his laboratory.

Cornell University is involved mainly in studying nanofabrication in the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN). The university completed Duffield Hall in 2004 to house the Cornell Nanoscale Science and Technology Facility (CNF). Prof. John Silcox, Director at CNF, outlined NNIN and CNF for the Japanese participants in an exchange symposium at the university.

NNIN is composed of Cornell University and 12 other US universities. It provides fee-based services for researchers who can use its facilities. First-time users are required to have a three-day training course before they can use NNIN’s facilities and services. When a Japanese researcher asked what is the most vital problem is for running NNIN, its assistant director immediately answered “capital.” CNF has electron beam equipment, mask fabrication equipment, cleaning and etching equipment and an oxidation furnace. CNF’s degree of cleanliness stands at Class 100.

At the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), the Japanese participants and their counterparts at the university held a joint exchange symposium attended by Professor Frederick Lange. The Japanese group visited research facilities at the university. UCSB, an NNIN member, has equipment and facilities that include a clean room where researchers can conduct almost all research necessary in this field. All of the Japanese researchers were surprised by the unique and bold structure of the bay-type clean room at UCSB. No special equipment was seen at the university, and equipment and instruments there appeared to be sufficient for fabricating MEMS and test devices. A university official said that more than half of the users of equipment and facilities at the university are students and researchers belonging to UCSB, and startups around the university are allowed to use them by paying fees.

Japanese participants felt during their visits that there was no significant difference between the two countries in terms of equipment and facilities at research laboratories. In US where the environment for research is better-established than in Japan, young researchers from all over the world work hard enthusiastically.