Congratulations to Nathan Brooks on a Postdoctoral Fellowship, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
Congratulations to Nathan Brooks for receiving a Postdoctoral Fellowship from Academia Sinica in Taiwan!
Semiconductor Metrology Applications Engineer
JOB DESCRIPTION
We are seeking a highly motivated scientist or engineer to join our team and support business growth with semiconductor customers in the United States. The Applications Engineer will work closely with customers and be responsible for translating customer issues into problem statements for UNISERS. The Applications engineer will represent UNISERS as a technical expert in the field and establish recognition of this expertise from the customer. The scope and impact of this role offers the opportunity to grow in technical expertise or project or management leadership positions.
RESPONSIBILITIES & TASKS
- Coordinating and executing activities with our customers, understanding their needs, and delivering customized solutions.
- Conducting experiments and developing applications with customers to secure new business.
- Providing local expertise for maintenance, troubleshooting, and repairs of UNISERS equipment at our customer sites.
- Managing customer expectations by aligning goals and making expectations clear to others.
- Securing confidentiality of customer data, while translating customer issues into problem statements for UNISERS.
- Collaborating with multi-functional teams to support new technology development and accelerate product commercialization.
- Challenging the status quo to strive for improvements that add value.
- Keeping up to date with the latest trends and developments in small particle detection and identification.
- Communicating effectively with customers and internal teams through written and oral presentations.
SKILLS & EXPERIENCE
- Master’s degree or 2 years working experience in Material Science, Chemistry, Physics, Engineering, or a related field
- Broad and deep experience with all kinds of analytical methods for nanoparticles and surfaces.
- Experience with semiconductor-grade high-purity material testing and validation.
- Experience with application development for semiconductor R&D or manufacturing.
- Intermediate programing experience in Python is preferred.
- Excellent written and oral presentation skills.
- Fluency in English and German is advantageous.
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS
- Fast learner with a strong self-motivation to grow technically.
- Willingness to be cross trained in both applications development and equipment maintenance.
- Strong problem-solving skills; ability to work through ambiguity, in a dynamic environment.
- A high level of integrity for securing customer confidentiality.
- Ability to work independently and follow through on assignments with minimal supervision.
- Respecting each other and embracing the diversity of working in a cross-cultural team.
- Caring for our environment and avoiding waste.
- Willing to travel within the US to customers and to Switzerland for trainings.
ABOUT UNISERS
UNISERS AG is a young start-up from ETH Zurich with revolutionary technology to tackle the biggest challenge in the semiconductor industry: namely, contamination control. Our patented products have been validated to tremendously help the whole semiconductor supply chain (components, materials, wafers, equipment, and chip fabs) with quality control by finding and identifying otherwise undetected or unknown contaminations. Therefore, we will help chip makers reduce the amount of wasted chips (often more than 50%), increasing their profit substantially and at the same time contributing to less waste and CO2 emissions. Having closed a 14 Mio $ seed investment round led by Intel Capital; we are scaling up our team to bring our unique technology to industry as fast as possible.
BENEFITS
- Competitive salary and benefit packages (including health insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, life insurance and 401K matching)
- Participation in our attractive ESOP (Employee Stock Option Plan)
- Opportunity to shape a growing high-tech company and take over leadership roles
- Modern culture of collaboration
- 25 days of vacation
- Flexible working hours, including possibility for remote work
- Personal education (reimbursement of tuition fees)
How hundreds of college students are helping solve a centuries-old mystery about the sun
Astronomers-in-training spent thousands of hours peering at tiny solar flares that space telescopes missed. A team of more than 1,000 astronomers and college students just took a step closer to solving one of the long-lasting mysteries of astronomy: Why is the sun’s outer layer, known as the corona, so ridiculously hot? The solar surface is 10,000°F, but a thousand miles up, the sun’s corona flares hundreds of times hotter. It’s like walking across the room to escape an overzealous space heater, but you feel warmer far away from the source instead of cooler, totally contrary to expectations.
Predicting heat flow in 3D semiconductor nanosystems
Nanostructuring on length scales corresponding to phonon mean free paths provides control over heat flow in semiconductors and makes it possible, in principle, to engineer their thermal properties. However, this is currently not feasible because there is no general description for heat flow in 3D nanostructured semiconductors. In recent research, STROBE scientists used short wavelength extreme ultraviolet beams to study heat transport in a silicon metalattice with deep nanoscale features. They observed dramatically reduced thermal conductivity relative to bulk—about x50 times less than current model predictions. To explain this, they developed a new predictive theory that incorporates the idea that heat-carrying lattice vibrations can behave like a fluid—spreading out instead of just moving ballistically in straight lines. Moreover, this new theory of heat transport can be used to predict and engineer phonon transport in many other 3D nanosystems including nanowires and nanomeshes, that are of great interest for next-generation energy-efficient devices.
How 1,000 undergraduates helped solve an enduring mystery about the sun
For a new study, a team of physicists recruited roughly 1,000 undergraduate students at CU Boulder to help answer one of the most enduring questions about the sun: How does the star’s outermost atmosphere, or “corona,” get so hot? The research represents a nearly-unprecedented feat of data analysis: From 2020 to 2022, the small army of mostly first- and second-year students examined the physics of more than 600 real solar flares—gigantic eruptions of energy from the sun’s roiling corona…
Introduction to Electron Microscopy for Materials Science
Abstract: This talk will introduce the basics of Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) imaging, spectroscopy and diffraction techniques to a general audience and show recent highlights of new techniques for materials characterization. Modern TEMs combine atomic-level imaging and spectroscopy with quantitative diffraction analysis, providing a powerful toolkit for probing the structure and chemistry of materials. Recent technological advances in instrumentation such as stages and direct electron detectors have enabled new capabilities and modes of imaging. This talk will also highlight selected in situ observations of the dynamic physical behavior of materials in response to external stimuli such as temperature, environment, stress, and applied fields.
Bio: Andrew Murphy Minor is a Professor at the University of California, Berkeley in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and also holds a joint appointment at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory where he is the Facility Director of the National Center for Electron Microscopy in the Molecular Foundry. He has over 260 publications in the fields of nanomechanics, metallurgy, electron characterization of soft matter and in situ transmission electron microscopy technique development. Minor’s honors include the LBL Materials Science Division Outstanding Performance Award (2006 & 2010), the AIME Robert Lansing Hardy Award from TMS (2012) and the Burton Medal from the Microscopy Society of America (2015). Currently, he is the President of the Microscopy Society of America.
Label-free measurement of nanoscale energy flow using time-resolved scattering microscopy
Abstract: From photo-generated heat and charge carriers in metals and semiconductors to excited chlorophyll molecules in plants’ photosynthetic membranes, understanding how energy flows through and is dissipated by systems with nanoscale heterogeneity is of great interest for emerging energy technologies, including photovoltaics, transistors, and artificial photosynthesis. The dynamics of charge carrier migration following photoexcitation take place over sub-picosecond to nanosecond timescales and nanometer length scales. Imaging such a wide variety of energy carriers in such varied materials calls for a microscopy modality with high temporal resolution and spatial sensitivity without the need for labeling. Time-resolved interferometric scattering microscopy (stroboSCAT), developed in the Ginsberg Lab, ticks many of these boxes, relying on interference between light scattered by a sample and light reflected by the substrate to achieve high sensitivity at low fluences. In stroboSCAT, a pump-probe technique, a diffraction-limited volume is excited by a focused optical pump and imaged some time later by a widefield probe pulse. The technique allows direct imaging of excitons, heat, and any other energy carriers that alter the local polarizability and thus the scattering cross-section of the sample. Using this technique, the Ginsberg Group has studied exciton migration in hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites and organic semiconductors, charge and heat migration in silicon and 2D transition metal dichalcogenides, and subdiffusive heat transfer in gold nanocrystal films, and more, revealing insights into the role of nanoscale heterogeneity on energy transfer.
Bio: Leo Hamerlynck is a fifth-year graduate student in Prof. Naomi Ginsberg’s lab at UC Berkeley. At Berkeley, Leo has studied energy transfer in proteins involved in photosynthesis through time-resolved spectroscopy and microscopy in order to understand what gives rise to its excellent energy transfer efficiency. Leo has used ultrafast transient absorption anisotropy measurements to understand the impacts of different types of disorder on intra-protein energy transfer in a model light-harvesting complex based on TMV. Leo’s recent work focuses on applying stroboSCAT to intact thylakoid membranes to investigate inter-protein energy transfer in photosynthesis.
Congrats to Emma Nelson for Receiving an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
The NSF GRFP recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported STEM disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited US institutions. The purpose of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) is to ensure the quality, vitality, and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States. GRFP seeks to broaden participation in science and engineering of underrepresented groups, including women, minorities, persons with disabilities, and veterans. The five-year fellowship provides three years of financial support inclusive of an annual stipend of $37,000.
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Researchers created topologically stable magnetic monopoles and imaged them in 3D with unprecedented spatial resolution using a technique developed at the Advanced Light Source (ALS). The work enables the study of magnetic monopole behavior for both fundamental interest and potential use in information storage and transport applications. A bar magnet cut in half will always have a north and south pole, ad infinitum. Thus, magnetic monopoles—particles with a single magnetic “charge”—have never been observed in isolation. Yet the idea continues to intrigue: How would magnetic monopoles behave? What could you do with the magnetic equivalent of electric charge or current? Remarkably, scientists might be able to explore such questions via quasiparticles—particle-like phenomena emerging from collective interactions in condensed matter. However, it has been difficult to directly measure these quasiparticles and probe their behavior at the nanoscale…
Postdoctoral Research Associate for Electron Microscopy Study of Quantum Materials
The Advanced Electron Microscopy and Nanostructured Materials Group in CMPMS, BNL, is seeking postdoctoral research associate for electron microscopy study of quantum materials.
The goal of the research is to explore, understand, and control the novel physical mechanisms of quantum materials, including charge-spin-lattice correlations at a wide range of temperatures, especially at low temperatures where intriguing materials behavior emerges. The research will focus on quantum materials that exhibit intriguing physical behavior such as insulator-metal-transition, interface/defects induced charge-spin interactions, or topological properties for novel forms of information storage and manipulation.
The position will provide an exceptional opportunity for research in quantum materials and devices for one or two of the following areas: strongly correlated electron systems, multiferroics, topological materials, skyrmions, and 2-D transition metal dichalcogenides, at the forefront of electron microscopy with extraordinary spatiotemporal resolutions to understand structure-property relationship. Planned experiments with quantitative data analyses include, but not limited to, low temperature atomic imaging, high energy-resolution energy-loss spectroscopy, nanoprobe 4D scanning diffraction, and in-situ electromagnetic biasing and microwave excitation. The work will be conducted under the direction of Dr. Yimei Zhu. Close collaborations with leading theoretical and experimental groups at BNL and elsewhere are an essential ingredient of the research.
Position Requirements:
o Ph.D. in Condensed Matter Physics, Materials Science, or closely related fields.
o Solid background in electron microscopy and structural characterization.
o Experience in aberration corrected electron microscopy and/or monochromated electron energy-loss-spectroscopy.
o Effective communication skills.
BNL policy states that research associate appointments may be made to individuals who have received their Ph.D. within the past five years. BNL is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer committed to the development of a diverse workforce.
For those interested and qualified please contact Professor Yimei Zhu at zhu@bnl.gov.