The Micro/Nanophysics Research Laboratory (MNRL) physically consists of a 30 square metre clean room and biolaboratory area. The clean room consisting of Class 10,000 and Class 1,000 space also has a 25 tonne suspended floor for precise vibration measurements as well as atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) measurements. Currently, the clean room micro/nanofabrication suite consists of a MA6 mask aligner, thin film (below 15 micron) spin coater, SUSS Microtec D70 thick film spin coater, Hummer triple-target DC/RF magnetron sputter deposition system, Dynavac sputter etch system, Dynatex diamond scribe dicer, and, a 5 Hz excimer (exciplex) 408 nm laser. In addition, we also have a Polytec MSA-400 three-dimensional scanning laser Doppler vibrometer capable of sub-picometre displacement measurements.

The biolaboratory area houses advanced flow visualisation equipment such as a micro Particle Image Velocimetry (microPIV) system, eight microscopes (fluorescence, bright field, boom and infrared) and several high speed video cameras including one that is capable of colour recording up to 33,000 frames/s. Other characterisation equipment include a TSI Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS) for aerosol and particle sizing from 4 nm to 1 microns, a single point laser Doppler vibrometer and other impedance measurement equipment. In addition, a range of signal generators and amplifiers are available that service to 1 GHz frequencies up to several kilovolts.

 

For numerical analysis, the laboratory houses a 64 bit 32 Gb RAM machine with finite element analysis (FEA) capabilities as well as access to supercomputing facilities in Victoria.

 

MNRL is an integral part of the recently established Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication (MCN), which is the Victorian node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility funded by the Australian Government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). The MCN, which is a $60 million state-of-the-art facility for the nanofabrication of biosensors and integrated microdevices, is jointly operated by the Victorian Government, five Melbourne universities including RMIT University, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and MiniFab.

Getting Here

My office is located at Level 7, Building 12, Room 16c on Swanston Street, RMIT City Campus