Centre for Nanoscience and Quantum Information
Encyclopedia
The Centre for Nanoscience and Quantum Information (informally NSQI) is a research centre within the University of Bristol
University of Bristol
The University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...

. Built as a intra-university facility, the Centre is open to any University researcher working in the nanoscience and quantum information
Quantum information
In quantum mechanics, quantum information is physical information that is held in the "state" of a quantum system. The most popular unit of quantum information is the qubit, a two-level quantum system...

 fields. The mission of the Centre is to support world-leading research, as well as provide an interdisciplinary environment that will generate novel and innovative projects that might never have happened in a traditionally divided research establishment. Set in motion by the current Director in 2002 and officially opened in 2009, the Centre was designed to provide a unique ultra-low-vibration research space, making the labs some of the quietest in the world.

Building layout

The building is split across four floors:

  • Basement: is entirely for the most sensitive experimental work, with seven low noise labs, two ultra-low noise labs, an anechoic chamber
    Anechoic chamber
    An anechoic chamber is a room designed to stop reflections of either sound or electromagnetic waves.They are also insulated from exterior sources of noise...

     and a class 1000 cleanroom
    Cleanroom
    A cleanroom is an environment, typically used in manufacturing or scientific research, that has a low level of environmental pollutants such as dust, airborne microbes, aerosol particles and chemical vapors. More accurately, a cleanroom has a controlled level of contamination that is specified by...

    , as well as three prep labs.

  • Ground Floor: has two Quantum Information labs (with less stringent noise requirements), staff offices, a seminar room and large, bright, open foyer and coffee area.

  • First Floor: has an additional seminar room and the rest of the floor is given over to hot desk and office space for the researchers who make the Centre for NSQI their home.

  • Second Floor: is almost entirely dedicated to chemical and biological labs ("Wet labs"); a main interdisciplinary communal lab, with additional tissue culture, bacterial culture and light micrsocopy rooms. A second Class 1000 cleanroom is available on this floor for clean sample preparation. This floor also houses the student office of the Bristol Centre for Functional Nanomaterials ("BCFN"), a Doctoral Training Centre
    Doctoral Training Centre
    Doctoral Training Centres are centres for managing the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council PhD-funded degrees in the United Kingdom...

     jointly held by the Schools of Physics and Chemistry.

  • Third Floor: location of the main switch room and plant room for all the Centre services (water tanks, boilers, air handling units etc.).

Building design features

The building was designed by Percy Thomas of Capita Architecture, in 2004 and built by Willmott Dixon. The primary requirement for the building was that it be a low-noise
Noise
In common use, the word noise means any unwanted sound. In both analog and digital electronics, noise is random unwanted perturbation to a wanted signal; it is called noise as a generalisation of the acoustic noise heard when listening to a weak radio transmission with significant electrical noise...

 research environment, stable enough to allow researchers to take measurements at subnanometre and subnanoNewton resolution, despite other activities going on around them. The criteria set for the research space exceeded any standard curve (VC curves) and required significant design and engineering solutions.

"The new Bristol Centre will serve as a commendable and viable construct for interdisciplinary research; it's ultimate goal is to move to new shores and new territories."
Nobel laureate Heinrich Rohrer
Heinrich Rohrer
Heinrich Rohrer is a Swiss physicist who shared half of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics with Gerd Binnig for the design of the scanning tunneling microscope .-Biography:...

, 2010, at the Scientific Opeining of the Centre.

Low vibrations

The primary source of noise for researchers at the nanoscale is mechanical vibration
Vibration
Vibration refers to mechanical oscillations about an equilibrium point. The oscillations may be periodic such as the motion of a pendulum or random such as the movement of a tire on a gravel road.Vibration is occasionally "desirable"...

. Activities within a building generate noise that can travel through the structure and vibrations created outside (such as from road traffic) can travel through the ground and enter the building. A variety of methods were employed to reduce vibration generation, travel and entry into the lab space:

  • The main structure of the building is massive, 2.0 m-thick concrete foundations and 0.5 m-thick concrete floors.

  • All plant machinery is removed to the third floor, as far from the lab space as possible.

  • All services and plant machinery is suspended on springs, rubber pads or damper pads to reduce coupling between the mechanism and the building.

  • All services are balanced to reduce turbulence within pipe and ductwork.

  • All corridors are floating, separate from the main structure, stopping vibrations crossing the floor and major foot traffic from affecting the building.

  • The lift shaft is decoupled form the building structure.

  • The building is decoupled from the building next door.

  • All services pass through a flexible hose coupling before entering the low noise labs.

  • All Low noise labs have a seven tonne concrete isolation block set on damper pads, within the ground slab. This is the experimental space, with lower vibrations than the surrounding floor and allowing experiments to coninue while the researcher walks around within the lab.

  • Both ultra-low noise labs have either a 23-tonne or 27-tonne concrete isolation block supported by pneumatic rams. The block is T-shaped in cross-section, to keep the centre of gravity lower (reducing wobble within the block). The block is surrounded by a floating floor, so that researchers can use the room while experiments are taking place.

  • To further reduce the noise in the ultra-low noise labs, control equipment can be removed from the room and installed in the neighbouring control room. The control room has its own isolation block and is heavily soundproofed. Conduits allow cables to ran between the labs, allowing the experiment to be completely run from the control room.


Soundproofing

Acoustic noise within the building is countered through several measures. Most importantly, experimental rooms are far from the busy University precinct, underground and in an area that is not used for teaching, or as a thoroughfare. The thickness of the floor ensures that little sound penetrates across and the walls between labs and doors of the labs are soundproof. The plant machinery is removed as far from the labs as possible, on the top floor, and the services are tuned as precisely as possible to reduce any sounds from the water supply, chilled water system or air vents.

Low electrical noise

Many of the experiments planned for the Centre involve recording tiny electrical currents (as low as a few picoAmps) so electrical noise is seen as a serious problem. Each basement research lab is a full Faraday cage
Faraday cage
A Faraday cage or Faraday shield is an enclosure formed by conducting material or by a mesh of such material. Such an enclosure blocks out external static and non-static electric fields...

, all service pipework changes to plastic before entering the lab and no Category 5 cable
Category 5 cable
Category 5 cable is a twisted pair cable for carrying signals. This type of cable is used in structured cabling for computer networks such as Ethernet. It is also used to carry other signals such as telephony and video. The cable is commonly connected using punch down blocks and modular connectors...

 (cat5e) is used in data network, fibre optics are used instead. All labs are also supplied with an independent earth and 'clean' power supply, the mains having been filtered by a 1:1 transformer
Transformer
A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another through inductively coupled conductors—the transformer's coils. A varying current in the first or primary winding creates a varying magnetic flux in the transformer's core and thus a varying magnetic field...

.

Interdisciplinary space

In addition to providing state-of-the-art low noise spaces, the building is also designed to encourage collaboration and interdisciplinary research. This includes plenty of meeting spaces and a light & spacious foyer/coffee area.

Directors


  • Director - Professor Mervyn Miles

  • Deputy Director - Dr Hua-Xing Peng


Previous Directors include Professor Daniel Robert, Professor Steve Wiggins and Professor Robert Evans.

Management Committee

The management committee provides advice and direction on the management of the Centre and assesses the project applications for researchers who wish to use the Centre. Current members are: Mervyn Miles (Physics; Director of NSQI); H.X.Peng (Aero-engineering; Deputy Director); Fred Hale (Centre Manager); Charl Faul (Chemistry; Centre User & BCFN co-ordinator); Henkjan Gersen (Physics; Centre User & BCFN co-ordinator); George Banting (Biochemistry); Margaret Saunders (BIRCH, Medical Biophysics; Centre User); and Jeremy O'Brien
Jeremy O'Brien
Jeremy O'Brien is a physicist who researches in quantum optics, optical quantum metrology and quantum information science...

 (Electrical & Electronic Engineering (EEE) and Physics; Centre User).

Research Strategy Group

This group steers the direction of Nanoscience and Quantum information research support across the University of Bristol. This is a University-wide community and is not restricted to research and researchers working in the building. Current members are: Mervyn Miles, John Rarity
John Rarity
John G. Rarity is professor of optical communication systems in the department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Bristol, a post he has held since 1 January 2003. He is an international expert on quantum optics, quantum cryptography and quantum communication using single...

(EEE; Centre User); Daniel Robert (Biological Sciences; Centre User); Annela Seddon (BCFN & Physics; Centre User); Ruth Oulton (Physics and EEE; Centre User); Tannie Liverpool (Mathematics); Mark Dillingham (Biochemistry); Dek Woolfson (Chemistry and Biochemistry); and Siyuan Yu (EEE; Centre User).

Centre Staff


  • Centre Manager - Fred Hale

  • Executive Assistant - Julie Shackleford

  • Administrative assistant - Alex Martin

  • Lab Managers
    • Low Noise Labs - Peter Dunton
    • Cleanrooms - Alison Roulston
    • Wet lab - Stuart Bellamy
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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