Materials, Advanced Design
&
Manufacturing
103
Keywords
Functionalised surfaces, chiral surfaces, alloys and
quasicrystals, surface wetting, self-assembled
monolayers, biosurfaces
Expertise
As electronic and industrial components get ever smaller,
they encounter unpredictable quantum effects when the
bulk properties of matter give way to altered behaviours
due to quantum mechanical interactions.
Basic research is essential to overcome quantum
limitations and open the door to future discoveries.
Liverpool’s surface scientists are pioneering in this
respect, driving advanced, sophisticated experimental
and theoretical methods that will enable nanoscale
phenomena to be understood and exploited.
Surface science allows researchers to probe and
manipulate atoms and molecules down to the nanoscale.
Our expertise in this field is facilitating advances in
catalysis, functional materials, electronics, biological
interfaces, sensors and smart coatings.
The University’s Surface Science Research Centre is
an interdisciplinary centre, bringing together chemists
and physicists with world-leading expertise in
characterising the surfaces of materials and surface
processes via experiment and modelling. We have
world-leading expertise in the surfaces of complex
metal alloy materials which have complex structures
(
eg quasicrystals) and display combinations of
properties not found in conventional alloys.
Our ambition is to achieve nanoscale control, design
and assembly of function at surfaces, ranging across
molecular spintronics, catalysis, molecular self-assembly,
chirality, complex alloys, quasicrystals, metamaterials
and bioengineering.
Capabilities and facilities
The Surface Science Research Centre is outstandingly
well equipped, with a dedicated suite of state-of-the-art
instruments for studying processes at bare and
functionalised surfaces. These include:
•
Scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM)
•
Surface spectroscopies including X-ray photo-
electron spectroscopy (ESCA), surface infrared
spectroscopy, reflection anisotropy spectroscopy
and mass spectrometry
•
Laser techniques including s
um frequency
generation (SFG), second harmonic generation
(
SHG) and femtosecond spectroscopy.
•
Theoretical modelling, including density functional
theory, electron transport and surface dynamics
calculations.
Relevant centres and groups
•
Surface Science Research Centre.
4.3
Surface functionality and functionalisation
