Draft:Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies



The Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies is a nanoscience user facility with locations at Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory, and is one of five Nanoscale Science Research Centers sponsored by the United States Department of Energy.

Overview
The Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT) awarded in 2002 with initial funding of $75.8 million for design and construction. The center is one of five Department of Energy, Office of Science Nanoscale Science Research Centers, with the other centers being the: Molecular Foundry, Center for Nanoscale Materials, Center for Functional Nanomaterials, and the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences. CINT focuses on developing fundamental materials knowledge on the pathway to integrate nanostructures into the micro and macro-worlds.

The CINT is comprised of two facilities one, Core Facility, in Albuquerque, New Mexico at Sandia National Laboratories, and Gateway Facility in Los Alamos at Los Alamos National Laboratory. According to its 2026 strategic plan, CINT provides scientific users with access to expertise and advanced capabilities for researcher in materials synthesize, fabricate, characterize, understand, and scale nanostructured materials into the microscopic and macroscopic worlds.

National Academy of Engineering member, Julia M. Phillips served as the first director of CINT. Phillips was followed by Robert Hwang who was CINT director from 2007 till 2010, when Dr. Antoinette Taylor of Los Alamos National Laboratory as CINT director. The current director, from 2018 on, is Jeff Nelson of Sandia National Laboratories.

Center Research Capabilities
CINT's research capabilities are divided into four thrusts:
 * In-Situ Characterization and Nanomechanics Developing and implementing capabilities to study the dynamic response of materials and nanosystems to mechanical, electrical, radiation, or other stimuli.


 * Nanophotonics and Optical Nanomaterials : Discovery, synthesis, and integration of optical nanomaterials; exploitation and characterization of emergent or collective electromagnetic and quantum optical phenomena, from nanophotonics and metamaterials to quantum coherence.


 * Soft, Biological, and Composite Nanomaterials Solution-based materials synthesis and assembly of soft, composite, and artificial bio-mimetic nanosystems.


 * Quantum Materials Systems Understanding and designing nanomaterials to create new functionalities based on quantum effects that span multiple length scales (from nm to mm).

Notable Advances from CINT

 * BaDx - a self-powered credit-card-sized device that detects bacteria that cause anthrax. In 2015, BaDx received the national Federal Laboratory consortium’s (FLC) Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer . CINT scientists, George Bachand and Amanda Carroll-Portillo work on BaDx improved the function of the lateral flow assay.
 * World's smallest Li-ion battery - in 2010, a group of researchers, lead by CINT scientists, created a Li-ion battery out of a single nano-wire in side of a transmission electron microscope. The work was first published in the renown AAAS journal Science.

Notable Members of CINT

 * Alexander V. Balatsky - contributions to the theory of High-temperature superconductivity, and mechanism of superconducting paring known as Spin Fluctuation Theory


 * C. Barry Carter - CINT Distinguished Affiliate Scientist focused on transmission electron microscopy, editor and chief of Journal of Materials Science, and Emeritus Professor (MS&E), University of Connecticut


 * Katherine Jungjohann - In situ scanning/transmission electron microscopy, Clean energy degradation mechanisms, Solid-liquid interfacial reactions in energy storage and corrosion


 * Sean Hearne - In situ studies of stress evolution, electrodeposition. CINT co-director 2016-2018


 * Antoinette Taylor - research on metamaterials and nanophotonics including terahertz metamaterials for controlling and generating submillimeter radiation.

User Program
CINT's user program gives access to the center's expertise and equipment to external researchers. The program is open to scientists from academia, industry, and research institutes worldwide. In 2022, CINT received over 900 independent users across the two facilities. Access for researchers to work with CINT staff and capabilities is through a, peer-reviewed proposal and is free for users who intend to publish their results.

A CINT User Executive Committee, established in 2008, is the mechanism for the scientific community to "provide an organized framework for communication between those who use the CINT facilities and the CINT management."