Boston, MA, March 24, 2004--The Photonics Center at Boston University announced it has begun building a $1.5 million Nanophotonics Laboratory, scheduled to open this September. The facility will enable engineers and developers from different industries and areas of specialization to integrate advances in nanophotonics, nanobiosystems, and nano-electromechanical systems into application focused platforms.

The lab will be available for joint product development partnerships with government agencies and corporations, as well as the center's business accelerator companies. Photonics Center systems engineer Ze'ev Feit will manage the lab, which is expected to produce a number of breakthrough applications in the fields of homeland security, medical diagnostics, and nanoscale sensory and imagery systems, according to Photonics Center professor Bennett Goldberg, who will be a principal investigator at the new facility.

The 1000-sq-ft Nanophotonics Laboratory will feature ultraclean Class 100 workstation enclosures and both permanent and revolving project workstations. It will also provide space for longer-term specialized projects and have the capabilities for nanomaterials characterization and qualification for advanced processes; nanoscale imaging of single molecules and subcellular processes; integration systems for atto-gram measurement of biological species in nanomechanical, nanoelectric and nanophotonic detection platforms; and dip-pen and cantilever-based nanolithography robotics for the precise positioning of biological and biochemical binding agents.