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nanolayer Surface & Interface physics (nSI)

The 'nanolayer Surface and Interface Physics' department, or shortly nSI, addresses topics in surface science, and in thin film and multilayer physics, including their boundary areas. Research involves physical and chemical phenomena at surfaces and in the layered solid state, as well as XUV optical and plasma physics aspects.



 

The investigations are motivated by the application of the know-how in advanced photolithography optics, plasma-surface interaction systems, and reflective optics for short-wavelength radiation.


 

The front-line research on these themes at nSI takes advantage of the in-house availability of advanced UHV instrumentation and state-of-the-art experimental facilities, supported by facilities of various project partners..

The nSI department consists of four research groups:

 

  • Surface ion- and photochemistry, (or SIPC),

  • Physics of thin films and multilayers (TFM),

  • Advanced applications of XUV optics (AXO). and

  • Extreme Ultraviolet Physics (EUV), the latter being executed within a FOM EUV Lab at ASML, Veldhoven.


See the movie about nanolayer Surface & Interface physics at YouTube:




Currently executed projects include:

  • the comprehensive Industrial Partnership Programme named ‘Controlling Photon and Plasma induced Processes at EUV optical surfaces’ (CP3E), supported by FOM, Zeiss, and ASML

  • the earlier Zeiss-FOM Industrial Partnership Programme eXtreme UV Multilayer Optics (XMO)

  • FOM Programme 75, named PSI-lab: An integrated laboratory on plasma-surface interaction, a fusion research project partly executed within nSI

  • Negating HIO-induced metal and carbide EUV surface contamination (No-HIO), a project funded by M2i and ASML

  • Stability of EUV caps under reactive environments (SECURE-N), also through M2i and ASML

  • Materials for photoconversion, in collaboration with TU Delft

  • Smart Multilayer Interactive Optics for Lithography at Extreme UV Wavelengths, SMILE

  • a feasibility research project on XUV multilayer optics for XFEL, carried out at FLASH, Hamburg, and

  • the Nanostructured Arrays project on laterally structured multilayer optics, executed mainly at MESA+

 

Internships

This section is about internships in the nSI department; for general information, see the (Dutch language) page on intern positions.

 

The nSI department offers students the opportunity of doing an internship within an academic research environment. Students from Dutch technical schools or universities are welcome to participate in our research, with their stay lasting anywhere between a few weeks and a full year.

 

Interns are supervised by one of the department's researchers and can choose between experimental, modelling or theoretical work. The exact topic and details of the research assignment are often determined in mutual consideration, to get a good match between the student and research.