aim: letter from director
The Laboratorio Tecnologie Avanzate e nanoSCienze (TASC) was established in 1984 at the AREA di Ricerca di Trieste. In 1988 it became the first National Laboratory of the Consorzio Interuniversitario per la Fisica della Materia, then Istituto Nazionale per la Fisica della Materia (INFM) and now the new Istituto Officina dei Materiali of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR). The Laboratory gradually expanded the scope of its activities under the direction of Professors Renzo Rosei (University of Trieste), Fernando Tommasini (University of Trento), Carlo Calandra (University of Modena), Alfonso Franciosi (University of Trieste) and Giorgio Rossi (University of Modena). Since October 2009 Professor Alberto Morgante serves as director of the TASC National Laboratory.
The mission of the TASC National Laboratory is twofold:
- it serves as a National resource for the solid state physics materials science, and synchrotron radiation spectroscopy communities,
- it implements a number of advanced in-house research programs including growth and elaboration of new materials and nanostructures.
The research at TASC is financed by means of European grants, Italian Government grants and contracts, funds from CNR and other Research National Institutions and contracts with industry.
The scientific staff of the Laboratory includes about 50 researchers (CNR-IOM and associated scientists), organized in several groups developing research programs on materials science (growth and characterization of semiconductors, two dimensional highly mobile electron gases, insulating oxides, carbon based nanostructured materials), surface and interface science (atomic structure and electron states at surfaces, surface phase transitions, plasma treatments), advanced microscopy (FEG-TEM analytical microscopy, variable temperature STM, cross-sectional STM, AFM), nanostructuring by electron, X-ray and AFM lithography, synchrotron radiation spectroscopies in the UV and soft X-ray range with variable polarisation sources.