University of Birmingham

The last UK Research Excellence Framework in 2014 confirmed that 87% of the University’s research has global reach, meaning it is recognised internationally in terms of its originality, significance and rigour. Birmingham is 84th in the 2018 QS World University Rankings, cementing our position in the top 100 universities globally and placing us 14th out of the 24 Russell Group universities to feature in the ranking. The principal role of the University of Birmingham will be development of new resists for metastable helium atom beam lithography. As metastable helium atoms have a near to zero nm penetration depth this will be focused on a self-assembled monolayer top surface imaging approach, and it will therefore also be necessary to develop appropriate underlayers to form a suitable multilayer etch stack for pattern transfer. The University of Birmingham will also undertake the development of new resist materials to enable the ultra-high resolution helium-ion-beam lithography that will be required for the fabrication of the holographic masks and will develop the idea Robinson has proposed for the Bose Einstein lithography of chemical treatment of the deposited Rb so that it can be used directly as an etch mask