Forth

IESL-FORTH is one of the leading Greek research institutes in experimental physics. It covers a wide range of topics ranging from applied laser physics, over solid state theory and semiconductor physics to fundamental groups working both theoretically and experimentally on Quantum Mechanics. It contributes to nanoLace their expertise in material science (most notably in the analysis of surfaces) and in ultra-cold quantum gasses.

IESL is part of the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (FORTH), which is one of the most successful experimental research centres in Greece. The Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser  is the largest (180 personnel) of its six institutes. In the research activities at IESL, particular emphasis is placed on fundamental research and the involvement in high technology areas. The institute is centred around five subject areas: Lasers and Applications, Materials (polymers, electronic, magnetic, and photonic materials), Microelectronics, Environment and Theoretical/Computational Physics and Chemistry. Particular emphasis is placed on both fundamental research and development of high technology: On the fundamental research side, the laser laboratories of the Institute are involved in the experimental as well as theoretical study of a variety of phenomena related to the interaction of electromagnetic radiation with matter. Subjects include amongst others, experimental atto-second pulse physics, spin squeezing magnetometry, and theoretical quantum-optics, condensed matter physics, BEC and quantum computing. IESL recently received an ERC start-up grant for cavity enhanced parity violation and a Marie-Curie Excellence grant for Bose-Einstein Condensation. On the technological side, there is the development of novel industrial and medical applications of lasers and optoelectronic systems. In addition, there is a significant technological expertise in the use of lasers for the preservation of cultural heritage. Over the last 5 years, IESL-FORTH has realized and/or managed more than 100 industrial and/or biomedical projects, including several RTD EC projects. Currently, IESL is currently part of 24 competitive EU research project with a total volume of 100 MEU with IESL itself receiving 12 MEU. IESL coordinates currently 14 competitive EU with a total budget of 54 MEU

In the context of nanoLace, The Bose-Einstein Condensation and Mattewaves Group  of FORTH will develop a novel approach to lithography: Matterwaves will be used to write nanometer-scale images onto ‘photo’ resists.  Bose-Einstein Condensates of Rubidium atoms will be used to generate near perfect planar waves of coherent atomic matter. They will then be imaged onto a substrate using magnetic lenses. The substrate will be covered in a Rubidium ‘resist’, which will react with the incident Rubidium atoms. After exposure, standard etching procedures will produce the desired structures. The biggest advantage of matterwaves over light, is the much shorter wavelengths, which can be as short a a few nanometers. They will use the resulting increase in resolution to write nanometric structures as a proof of principle demonstration of this novel approach.