CSEQuIN OVERVIEW

The Center for Spin Effects and Quantum Information in Nanostructures (CSEQuIN) was formed in January of 2005. It is the successor of the earlier Center for Advanced Photonic and Electronic Materials (CAPEM). This restructuring and the creation of the new center was motivated by several national initiatives in nanostructrues and spintronics, as well as our own university's increasing expertise in spintronics and our new hires in nanostructures, spintronics, and quantum computing in the Chemistry, Electrical Engineering, and Physics departments.

The purpose of the Center is to foster interactions and collaboration among faculty at the University at Buffalo by facilitating cooperative, interdisciplinary activities and multi-investigator research projects/proposals focused on research and development and educational activities in the areas of spin effects and nanostructures.

CSEQuIN is focusing on studies and exploitation of spin effects in nanostructures in the following areas: inorganic semiconductors (quantum dots, nanoparticles), combinations of ferromagnetic metals and semiconductors, polymers, organics and biomolecules, and hybrids of these materials and structures. Research activities at the Center encompass material and structure fabrication (including physical (molecular beam epitaxy), chemical, and biological self-assembly approaches), basic physical and chemical characterization and studies of materials, discovery of new phenomena, theoretical calculations and modeling, device modeling, prototyping, fabrication and testing, and the pursuit of novel ideas in spintronics and in quantum information theory and practice. Various nanostructures are at the core of these basic materials and device studies, but other approaches to suitable spintronic and spin-photonic devices, memories, biosensors, and active devices for quantum computation and information processing are also being pursued.

CSEQuIN brings together researchers from both the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, with participants from the departments of Chemical & Biological Engineering, Chemistry, Electrical Engineering, and Physics.

The Center is affiliated with the Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics (ILPB), and the Integrated Nanostructured Instrument Facility (INSIF). INSIF oversees several instrument facilities including the TEM Facility, the Clean Room, the Ultrafast Laser Facility, the Electron-Beam Lithography Facility, and the Laboratory for Spintronics Research in Semiconductors (LSRS).