masonlw

Home \ Lauren Mason

About Lauren Mason

This author has not yet filled in any details.
So far Lauren Mason has created 285 blog entries.

Postdoctoral Appointee – Microelectronics characterization

The Instrumentation Division seeks an exceptional Postdoctoral Research Associate to join a research effort on characterization of advanced microelectronic structures using ptychographic imaging techniques being developed at NSLS-II. The x-ray metrology pipeline will be utilized for characterization of microelectronic structures being developed at IO and performing x-ray measurements at NSLS-II. Examples of target areas include (but are not limited to): (i) characterization of defects due to electromigration effects in high-current density interconnects, (ii) characterization of mechanical stress and radiation-damage effects in photonics components integrated on a conventional silicon substrate and (iii) preparation of samples to be used for x-ray experiments at NSLS-II. The selected candidate will work with a team of scientists from NSLS-II, CFN (Centers for Functional Nanomaterials), CSI (Computational Science Initiative), and IO (Instrumentation Division), plus other postdoctoral researchers who are working on different aspects of the project (i.e., development of ptychographic imaging techniques, performing simulations and experiments that incorporate latest machine-learning algorithms). Furthermore, the successful candidate will collaborate broadly with the other members of IO and CFN, leveraging their expertise in design and fabrication of microelectronics.

This is a 2 year appointment.

Optical Research Scientist (BS/MS level)

This position will provide support to the US Naval Research Laboratory’s Optical Materials and Devices Branch (Code 5620). Code 5620 conducts a broad range of research and development activities. This position will support activities within the branch including but not limited to:

  • Maintenance of thin film deposition and characterization systems
  • Thin film growth, processing, and characterization
  • Design and construction of laboratory experimental setups
  • Performance of a variety of research activities to assist government personnel
  • Purchasing laboratory supplies
  • Periodic presentation and reporting of research results

Minimum qualifications:

  • S. in Materials Engineering/Optics/Physics or a related discipline
  • Familiarity with thin film deposition and characterization techniques
  • Familiarity with programming languages and an ability to write laboratory control software
  • Familiarity with optics and optical systems
  • Excellent written communication skills

The preferred candidate will have:

  • An advanced degree in the above or related disciplines or equivalent work experience
  • A documented track record in publishing and presenting research results
  • Experience in growth, processing, and characterization of thin film materials
  • Experience in modeling and simulation of optical systems and devices
  • Experience working with lasers and optical system design and assembly

For more details, please contact Jason Myers (jason.d.myers21.civ@us.navy.mil).

Research Scientist in Optical Sciences

Summary: NRL is seeking a Research Scientist to work in the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory’s Optical Materials and Devices Branch (Code 5620) within the Optical Sciences Division. Code 5620 conducts fundamental and applied research on a broad range of optical materials, photonic devices, and systems. Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

  • Modeling and design of devices including metamaterials, integrated optic waveguides, and random or periodic nanostructures
  • Lithographic patterning of standard and non-standard materials
  • Material and device characterization including microscopy, ellipsometry, and spectroscopy
  • Preparing publications and presentations to report research results
  • Development and writing of research proposals
  • Development of relationships with research sponsors and other scientists outside of NRL
  • Willingness to assist and support other researchers on a variety of programs to meet objectives

Minimum qualifications:

  • S. citizen with an ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance
  • S. or a higher degree in Optics, Materials Science, Materials Engineering, Physics, Electrical Engineering or a related discipline
  • Expertise in modeling photonic devices
  • Laboratory skills including lithography and material and device characterization
  • Familiarity with programming languages and an ability to write laboratory control software
  • Familiarity with optics and optical systems
  • Familiarity with characterization techniques such as electron microscopy, ellipsometry, spectroscopy, and optical microscopy
  • Excellent written communication skills

Preferred qualifications:

  • D. degree in Optics, Materials Science, Materials Engineering, Physics, Electrical Engineering or a related discipline
  • Experience modeling and/or fabricating subwavelength antireflective surface structures in optics
  • Experience with deposition of thin films of optical materials
  • Familiarity with MATLAB, COMSOL, and Lumerical

For more details, please contact Jason Myers (jason.d.myers21.civ@us.navy.mil).

Uncertainty Quantification for High-Dimensional Systems – comparisons between physics-based and AI-driven approaches to real world applications in physics, chemistry, and life sciences

Title: Uncertainty Quantification for High-Dimensional Systems – comparisons between physics-based and AI-driven approaches to real world applications in physics, chemistry, and life sciences
Presenter: Prof. Peter Coveney, Professor of Physical Chemistry, Honorary Professor of Computer Science, and Director of the Centre for Computational Science (CCS) and Associate Director of the Advanced Research Computing Centre at University College London (UCL). He is also Professor of Applied High Performance Computing at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and Professor Adjunct at the Yale School of Medicine, Yale University.
Abstract: I will discuss the quantification of uncertainty in predictive models arising in physics-based models and models based on machine-learning. Applications will include predictions of the impact of pandemics, the design of advanced materials, discovery of new drugs and the behaviour of turbulent fluids. The curse of dimensionality has hitherto circumscribed the systematic study of more complex natural and artificial systems but the advent of scalable approaches is now starting to change things. A paradigm case which is widely used within the scientific community across all fields from physics and chemistry to materials, life and medical sciences is classical molecular dynamics. I will describe how we are now able to make global rankings of the sensitivity of quantities of interest to the many hundreds to thousands of parameters which are used in these models. In particular, we are able to rank the importance of all the interaction potential (force field) parameters. I will compare and contrast such approaches with the situation which pertains when attempts are made to replace these force fields with machine learned versions in the hope of making them more widely applicable.
Speaker Bio: Peter Coveney is a Professor of Physical Chemistry, Honorary Professor of Computer Science, and Director of the Centre for Computational Science (CCS) and Associate Director of the Advanced Research Computing Centre at University College London (UCL). He is also Professor of Applied High Performance Computing at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and Professor Adjunct at the Yale School of Medicine, Yale University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Member of Academia Europaea. Dr Coveney has made outstanding contributions across a wide range of scientific and engineering fields, including physics, chemistry, chemical engineering, materials, computer science, high performance computing and biomedicine, much of it harnessing the power of supercomputing to conduct original research at unprecedented space and time scales. He has shown influential leadership across these fields, manifested through running multiple initiatives and multi-partner interdisciplinary grants, in the UK, Europe and the US. In addition to his scientific writings and publications, he has published three books for the general reader, The Arrow of Time, Frontiers of Complexity and Virtual You.

Imaging buried heterointerfaces with electron ptychography

The development of twisted van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures—where layers of 2D materials are stacked with controlled rotation angles—has opened exciting opportunities in quantum technologies. Notably, the twist interfaces in hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) can undergo structural transformations that support single-photon emission, making them promising for quantum sensing. However, imaging these buried interfaces using scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) has been challenging due to poor signal quality and geometric constraints.

In this work, we demonstrated the use of multislice ptychography (MSP), a sensitive coherent diffractive imaging technique, to visualize a twisted h-BN interface from a single-view dataset. STEM experiments were conducted on the TEAM I microscope at the National Center for Electron Microscopy, LBNL, where we acquired diffraction patterns from a 12-nm-thick twisted h-BN sample. Unlike conventional ptychographic approaches that yield a single complex image of the sample, MSP enables depth-sectioning during post-processing, producing a series of reconstructed image slices.

We successfully reconstructed 24 slices of the twisted h-BN heterostructure, resolving the top flake, interface, and bottom flake with a lateral resolution of 0.57 Å. Remarkably, a depth resolution of 2.5 nm was achieved without sample tilting—the highest reported depth resolution at the time of publication. This work highlights MSP’s potential to resolve nanoscale features in three dimensions without requiring tomographic data acquisition, paving the way for advanced quantum materials characterization.

Low dose characterization of polymer-based metamaterials

Nanoscale metrology using coherent extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) or soft x-ray (SXR) light has unique advantages for a broad range of science and technology. Short EUV/SXR wavelengths have high sensitivity to small features, elemental composition, as well as electronic and magnetic orders. Tabletop high harmonic sources (HHG) have high spatial and temporal coherence, enabling precise phase-sensitive measurements of nanoscale functional properties (e.g. transport and mechanical), as well as diffraction-limited imaging with both amplitude and phase contrast. However, to date, most EUV HHG measurements were performed on hard materials, where damage is not significant concern.

STROBE scientists demonstrated that EUV HHG can rapidly and nondestructively characterize dose-sensitive materials such as polymer-based structures, with higher spatial resolution than visible light, and with far less damage than electron imaging. They collaborated with scientists from 3M to characterize polymer metamaterials, that have 2D periodic features less than the wavelength of visible light. Using HHG scatterometry, they extracted layer thicknesses, densities and top-surface geometry, without the need to coat or cut the sample. In contrast, SEM imaging of this polymer metamaterial requires that the sample be coated, and the high-energy electron beam can cause shrinking (see Fig.). Here, the significantly lower photon energy (~42eV) of EUV HHG compared with electron beams (~1-30keV) is key to lowering the dose, while maintaining high spatial resolution (<60nm transverse and <nm axial). Finally, correlative electron imaging, which requires highly specialized sample preparation to avoid sample damage, was implemented to validate the EUV HHG findings.

Neural space-time model for dynamic scene recovery in multi-shot computational imaging

Computational imaging reconstructions from multiple measurements that are captured sequentially often suffer from motion artifacts if the scene is dynamic. We propose a neural space–time model (NSTM) that jointly estimates the scene and its motion dynamics, without data priors or pre-training. Hence, we can both remove motion artifacts and resolve sample dynamics from the same set of raw measurements used for the conventional reconstruction. We demonstrate NSTM in three computational imaging systems: differential phase-contrast microscopy, three-dimensional structured illumination microscopy and rolling-shutter DiffuserCam. We show that NSTM can recover subcellular motion dynamics and thus reduce the misinterpretation of living systems caused by motion artifacts.

Quantitative, high-resolution mapping of ferroelectric electric fields

At the ultimate scaling limit, electronic memory would store bits of information by shifting atoms back and forth inside individual crystalline unit cells. Ferroelectric materials exhibit the electronic hysteresis required to realize this ideal. However, despite the perfect alignment between a material class and an economically important application, ferroelectric computer memory has almost zero commercial presence.

The materials properties that are possible in principle are not realized in practice. Strain, defects, phase competition, and inhomogenieties all confuse the experimental picture. Previously it has been difficult to look inside a ferroelectric to see what is going on.  The standard high-resolution imaging techniques, piezo-force microscopy (PFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), struggle to visualize the electric and polarization fields that are the hallmarks of ferroelectricity. Understanding why ferroelectric materials have not yet lived up to their potential is widely recognized open problem.

Using scanning TEM (STEM) electron beam-induced current (EBIC) imaging, we map the electric fields in a Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 capacitor, obtaining a view of the material’s ferroelectric properties that is unprecedented in its completeness. We map the whole device and  inside nanoscale domains, correlating global free currents with local polarization reversals. In individual domains we isolate and measure the remanent background E-field that does not switch, and we show that this field determines the coercive E-field required to switch the domain. These measurements connect the nanoscopic crystal structure to the mesoscopic materials properties that ultimately determine device function.

Tip-enhanced imaging and control of infrared strong light-matter interaction

Strong coupling refers to the coherent interaction between quantum state transitions and optical modes. These hybrid states present new possibilities for applications such as single-molecule sensing, single photon emitters, and low-threshold solid state lasers. However, due to the fundamental limitation arising from the weak transition dipole moments in the infrared (IR), reaching the strong coupling regime has been limited to macroscopic ensembles. Recently, multi-quantum-wells (MQW) with quantum engineered electronic states offer a promising route towards mid-IR electronic strong coupling. However, with traditional diffraction-limited mode volumes, even for high Q-factor resonators, the strong coupling of a single quantum emitter has historically necessitated operation at cryogenic temperatures to counteract dissipation.

Here, a STROBE team from CU Boulder with collaborators from Sandia National Lab, the Walter Schottky Institute (Munich), Texas A&M, and Colgate University, achieved control of nonlinear IR light-matter interaction between a single nano-antenna and quantum well intersubband transitions. The team combined broadband synchrotron infrared nano-spectroscopy (SINS) at the ALS-LBL with intense fs/ps-pulsed IR s-SNOM imaging developed at CU Boulder for the dynamic manipulation of the antenna-quantum well hybrid states on the nanoscale. The results demonstrate the potential for localized and dynamic modification of quantum states and excitation pathways as a new regime of coherent and tunable IR electronic strong coupling in open nano-cavity systems, with the perspective of nano-scale sensing and nano-optical control of power limiters or saturable absorbers.

Vibrational coupling infrared nano-crystallography

Many functional properties of molecular systems sensitively depend the local chemical environment seen by each molecule. In that regard, intermolecular coupling plays a pivotal role in controlling energy and charge transfer on molecular length scales. However, determining molecular structure and disorder and with nanometer resolution has notoriously been difficult. Conventional crystallography techniques based on the diffraction of high energy photons and electrons are not sensitive to this low-frequency intermolecular energy landscape.

STROBE teams have recently demonstrated that coupling between molecular vibrations and the resulting collective vibrational states have spectral features that allows one to derive not only the local molecular disorder and nano-scale domain formation, but also enables spectroscopic access to the low-frequency intermolecular energy landscape itself. The spatio-spectral nano-imaging of these collective vibrations in IR nano-spectroscopy has provided a new crystallography technique of vibrational coupling nano-crystallography (VCNC), which offers information on molecular order, disorder, and defects with nano-scale resolution.

In the new work, a STROBE team from CU Boulder collaborating with scientists from the University of Oklahoma now provides a solid theoretical foundation and benchmark measurements to make VCNC quantitative and predictive. This work advances VCNC from a qualitative tool capable of measuring changes in local molecular order to a quantitative technique able to measure and image precise vibrational wavefunction delocalization lengths and intermolecular interaction distances. The technique can now be applied to a wide range of functional molecular systems to image molecular order and disorder on their fundamental length scales.

Go to Top