project, the NI Lab sta昀昀 assisted an SNI doctoral student at In another signi昀椀cant new purchase, the NF Lab acquired a metal the Biozentrum by fabricating gold tips on cantilever probes evaporator — a device that can be used to vaporize various met- to which proteins bind and can then be analyzed. Likewise, als and then oxidize them under controlled conditions, allowing there are also plans for the fabrication and characterization the production of extremely thin metallic and oxide layers with of electrically conductive nanoscale gold contacts that are no defects. This capability is primarily required by researchers suitable for wide-ranging applications. for the production of Josephson junctions, in which a non-su- perconducting material is sandwiched between two supercon- ducting layers. In November 2023 Xavier Wildermuth and Juri Herzog joined the Nano Fab- rication Lab team. From left to right: Gerard Gadea, Arnold Lücke, Juri Her- zog and Xavier Wildermuth. The two devices are located in the new, second clean room, which forms part of the Clean Room Facility Basel (CRFB). This will considerably expand the services available to customers of the NF Lab. Currently, the SNI is renting the new clean room in the building of the Department of Biosystems Science and En- gineering of ETH Zurich in Basel, whose construction was com- pleted in 2023. Scanning electron microscope images from shock-frozen vine leaves infect- Until now, the main users of the NF Lab’s facilities came ed with downy mildew and powdery mildew. from the Department of Physics at the University of Basel and (Images: Nano Imaging Lab, SNI, University of Basel) the start-up Qnami, which emerged as part of the SNI network. With the team now numbering four people and since the ex- pansion of the clean room capacities, the services of the NF Lab Nano Fabrication Lab will also be available to further academic and industrial cus- tomers in the future. Specialists in tiny structures In 2023, the team of the Nano Fabrication Lab continued in its e昀昀orts to pool the equipment of various working groups at the “The NF Lab is the working horse of our research: Department of Physics, to improve safety and e昀케ciency for users, It is where we fabricate our nanoscale devices on and to digitalize the laboratories that form part of the NF Lab. which we explore quantum physics. We are happy In addition, the NF Lab acquired new equipment, including about the effort of the team to make the fabrication of an electron beam lithography system. The sta昀昀 are still working samples proceed more smoothly and safely.” on installing the device, but it will soon be available for re- Prof. Andrea Hofmann searchers to fabricate structures measuring less than 10 nano- Department of Physics, University of Basel meters. Above all, the new machine will be used by customers from the 昀椀eld of quantum computing. SNI Annual Report 2023 49