RIKEN Making Strides in Nanoscience Research

Nan Chen (Analyst, ATIP)

The first RIKEN Nanoscience Symposium was held at RIKEN's Wako main campus on 26-27 May 2003. (RIKEN is the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research.) The aim of the symposium was to introduce RIKEN's Nanoscience Research Program initiated in 2002 and to commemorate completion in March of construction of the Nanoscience Joint Laboratory at the Wako campus.

The symposium was preceded by a tour of the new nanoscience facilities. The new laboratory covers 6600 square meters of floor space and was designed for sophisticated control of vibration and sound and electromagnetic fields. At the beginning of the symposium, Dr. Eiichi Maruyama, Chairman of the RIKEN Nanoscience Research Program Promotion Committee, presented an outline of RIKEN's Nanoscience Program. The nano-research budget at RIKEN was estimated to be 5-6% of a total of 80 billion yen for FY 2002. There are a total of 18 ongoing nanoscience projects at RIKEN. Much of the nanoscience research has been at world-leading level. For example, in the field of quantum computation, RIKEN in collaboration with NEC Corp. has successfully demonstrated the world's first two-qubit entanglement in the solid state.

Researchers from RIKEN and other institutions presented their work in areas such as nano-chemical systems, nano-photonics, nano-scale properties, nano-devices, and new paradigms in spintronics and quantum computation. Nobel laureate Dr. Heinrich Rohrer, RIKEN research consultant, gave a feature presentation on the challenges of nanotechnology.