MNE 2014 Micro Nano Graph Contest

“A good Micrograph is worth more than the MegaByte it consumes.”

Entries Presented by Dr. John Randall – Zyvex Labs

        Sponsored by

In 2014, 117 entries received from 13 countries. There were many outstanding micrographs. The work represented in the submitted micrographs covered a wide range of fields including micro mechanical, photonic, and integrated circuit fabrication, chemical and dry etching,biological samples, material science experiments and, of course, e-beam, ion beam, and nano imprint lithography experiments.

RULES

• Entries have to be of a single image taken with a microscope and not significantly altered.
• There is no restriction with respect to the subject matter.
• Electron and ion micrographs have to be black and white.

JUDGES

Anja Boisen –Technical University of Denmark
Christophe Vieu – LAAS-CNRS, France
Alex Liddle – NIST, USA

AWARDS:

First Prize
Second Prize
Third Prize

The judges also selected 4 Honorable Mentions.

COMMENTS:

Judges exercised their prerogative to change the micrograph titles if it pleased them. Winners and Honorable Mentions will be displayed in perpetuity at www.ZyvexLabs.com


All 2013 Entries (with original titles)


 First Prize

 

"Thinking Frondly of You"

Description: Silver crystals formed on a nanostructured silicon surface
Magnification (3"x 4" image): 10 KX
Instrument: Zeiss Supra
Submitted by: Michael Stenbæk Schmidt
Affiliation: DTU Nanotech, Technical University of Denmark (Kongens Lyngby, Denmark)



 Second Prize

 

"Knust Hjerte" (Broken Heart)

Description: This broken heart results from the unwanted union between capillary forces
and a PDMS surface during the evaporation of a colloidal suspension containing 100 nm
polystyrene particles.
Magnification (3"x 4" image): 448 X
Instrument: SEM Zeiss Ultra Plus
Submitted by: Julien Cordeiror
Affiliation: LTM-CNRS (Grenoble, France)



 Third Prize

 

"Monet after Picasso"

Description: Cut into structured IP photoresist. Structure was written with a 3D laser lithography
system (Nanoscribe). The "woodpile“ was milled for structural analysis.
Magnification (3"x 4" image): 3.5 KX
Instrument: FEI HeIios NanoLab 650 Dualbeam
Submitted by: Thomas Loeber
Affiliation: NSC, TU Kaiserslautern (Kaiserslautern, Germany)



 Honorable Mention

 

"CNT hairdressing tutorial: curling without iron"

Description: (tilted view) CNT array grown by a catalytic, thermal CVD process. Due to a
parasitic growth at the basis of the catalyst support, the array, meant to grow horizontally, is
dragged into a spiral shape. Hypnotizing isn’t it ?
Magnification (3"x 4" image): 10.0KX
Instrument: Zeiss Leo 1550
Submitted by: H. Guerin, H. Le Poche et al.
Affiliation: EPFL (Lausanne, Switzerland), CEA (Grenoble, France)


 Honorable Mention

 

"Swiss Cheed Obviously"

Description: Siliceous scaffold covered by Al nano-crystals and big R6G gel-like crystals.
It is cool because you can see through the big crystals with an electron beam! Just like with light.
The real thing: It resembles to me a kind of sweet candy I used to enjoy when I was a child… Hmmmm:P
Magnification (3"x 4" image): 20.00 KX
Instrument: Zeiss FESEM Ultra Plus
Submitted by: Manuel Gomez
Affiliation: CIQUS, Center for Research in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Materials, Santiago de
Compostela University (Galicia, Spain)



 Honorable Mention

 

"Sleeper"

Description: Here we see several skin cells of rose petals, which are quiet hydrophobic, avoiding
the dew touch them. In the middle there is an iced drop of water.
Magnification (3"x 4" image): 4.98 KX
Instrument: Zeiss FESEM Ultra Plus
Submitted by: Manuel Gomez
Affiliation: CIQUS, Center for Research in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Materials, Santiago de
Compostela University (Galicia, Spain)



 Honorable Mention

 

"Mother Poulet"

Description: This picture is the result of a failed transfer of a 2 µm polystyrene particles network
obtained by capillary force assembly on a PDMS template. These particles has preferred to hide
behind this dust of whom we don’t know the origin.
Magnification (3"x 4" image): 5.51 KX
Instrument: SEM Zeiss Ultra Plus
Submitted by:Julien Cordeiro
Affiliation: LTM-CNRS (Grenoble, France)



 Honorable Mention

 

"Alien Penguins on Competition"

Description: You see here an imprint result obtained with a positive tone photoresist, which is imprinted,
exposed through a photomask and than developed. Light Diffraction and interference along the
imprinted as well along the photomak edges results in the profile shown here.
Magnification (3"x 4" image): 10 KX
Instrument: FEI XL 30S
Submitted by: Dhima Khalid
Affiliation: University of Wuppertal (Germany)



 Honorable Mention

 

"Searching for Salt"

Description: Continuous cuts through a microbial eukaryotic cell for the purpose of finding intracellular
salt crystals inside the organism. Cuts were made with a FIB, imaging was done using backscattered electrons.
Beside some small intracellular crystals the cell’s macro- and micronucleus can be seen nicely.
Magnification (3"x 4" image): 6.5 KX
Instrument: FEI HeIios NanoLab 650 Dualbeam
Submitted by:Thomas Loeber;Sample provided by Lea Weinisch; Ecology Group, TU Kaiserslautern
Affiliation: NSC, TU Kaiserslautern (Kaiserslautern,Germany)



 Honorable Mention

 

"City of Angels"

Description: Imprint into PS by a mold with (lateral size with 300nm) pyramidal structures. He was once an angel but chose to fall to earth and become human. There was only one proof for love left: the wing of angel an earthly paradise.
Magnification (3"x 4" image): 1.4 KX
Instrument: FEI XL 30S
Submitted by:Si Wang
Affiliation: University of Wuppertal (Wuppertal, Germany)


      

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