Congratulations to the winners of the STS Elionix Scientific Image competition of Q1 2024!
The STS Elionix Scientific Image competition allows us to showcase the creative side of the researchers here at Tyndall. They share scientific images from their research which they have discovered to be visually striking or informative to the technically excellent.
The judges for the Q1 competition were Prof. William Scanlon, CEO; Peter Smyth, Commercial Director; Ursula Morrish, Marketing & Communications Manager; Graeme Maxwell, Head of Specialty Products & Services and Dr Daniela Iacopino, Researcher, MNS.
The exceptional quality and creativity in the three images led to the votes being cast for the following winners: Nadia Anam (Fireball), Savda Sam, Artem Vorobev & William Whelan-Curtin (Nano Dock), Alida Russo & Richard Murray (Cliffs of LIG).
The winners are each awarded a €100 Me2You Gift Card, kindly sponsored by STS Elionix.
Fireball
Nadia Anam, Photonic Systems Group
This scientific image is part of a research project that focuses on light-gas interaction to detect greenhouse gases such as methane. It is expected that an optical system that uses laser to detect gases would be very efficient in tracing small portions of hazardous gases. This would hopefully then pave the way for future commercial photonic sensors that are miniaturised, cost-effective and reliable.
The microscopic image was captured in the Irish Photonic Integration Centre (IPIC) at Tyndall when red laser light hit a highly reflective glass tube.
The research is being carried out in the Photonic Systems Group at IPIC (the SFI Centre for Photonics) in Tyndall, in collaboration with Queen’s University Belfast.
Nano Dock
Savda Sam, Artem Vorobev, & William Whelan Curtin, Photonics: CAPPA Group
A cantilever featuring an embedded nanophotonic resonator was fabricated at Tyndall on a Silicon Nitride platform.
The nanophotonic structure was patterned using the Elionix electron beam lithography system, while the cantilever window was patterned using photolithography.
The cantilever was then released through dry isotropic etching of silicon with the XeF2 Etcher.
The purpose of this cantilever is for chemical sensing applications, specifically in conjunction with a photoacoustic spectroscopy system for gas sensing.
Cliffs of LIG
Alida Russo & Richard Murray, Nanotechnology Group
This scientific image was inspired by the breathtaking panorama of Ireland’s coastal scenery.
The image is a false-coloured scanning electron micrograph of LIG (laser-induced graphene), which is a 3D porous, conductive, carbon structures with high surface area that can be constructed via laser-irradiation of a target substrate, such as polyimide. The properties of the material can be tuned by altering the fabrication process to suit the desired application; this could be related to the use of diverse substrates, laser systems/parameters, and surface modification.
In this group at Tyndall, LIG has been fabricated on polyimide but also on sustainable substrates, such as chitosan or cork. Different applications have been tailed ranging from VOC (volatile organic compound) detection and electrochemical sensors to supercapacitors.
In this case, the use of different nanoparticles, such as gold nanoparticles, has been explored to modify the surface of the material and the gaps between different “cliffs”.