Development of a Variable Temperature Near-field Scanning Acoustic Microscope with Rapid Sample Access

材料研究仪器计划的这一奖项将使弗吉尼亚大学能够开发一种变温近场扫描声学显微镜，以绘制对物理、化学、材料科学、生物和工程感兴趣的固体在纳米尺度上的弹性性质，并加强物理学本科实验室的教学。该显微镜将使用定制设计的扫描头，带有集成的悬臂式传感器，能够在低温下工作，并与现有的控制电子设备接口。将获得一台脉冲管式(没有运动部件)的低振动制冷机，并用于冷却扫描头。选择脉冲管制冷机(可在任何物理方向上运行)，可将扫描头定位在顶部，便于快速获取样品。集成的悬臂梁传感方案将简化显微镜与电子显微镜等其他仪器的未来联姻。它还将使对生物样品和固液界面的研究成为可能，在这些界面上，光学检测方案不起作用。集成检测方案也应该对需要快速纳米级缺陷检测的新兴工业微电子具有吸引力。这项来自材料研究仪器计划的奖项，弗吉尼亚大学将开发一种新的显微镜，使用高频声波，并在宽温度范围内工作，以绘制对物理、材料科学、生物和工程感兴趣的固态材料在纳米尺度上的弹性特征，并加强物理学本科实验室的教学。显微镜将是扫描式的，图像将以数字方式获得。显微镜的声学传感器将使用集成微电子技术制造。这种集成的传感器方案简化了拟议的显微镜与其他仪器(如电子显微镜)的未来联姻。它还将使生物样品和固液界面的成像具有比光学获得的更好的分辨率。这种新型扫描声学显微镜的发展将有利于晶体和非晶体固体的研究，并将产生广泛的影响，包括在需要快速纳米级缺陷检测的新兴微电子工艺领域。

This award from the Instrumentation for Materials Research program will enable the University of Virginia to develop a variable temperature near field scanning acoustic microscope to map elastic properties on a nanometer scale on solids of interest to physics, chemistry, materials science, biology and engineering and to enhance teaching in the physics undergraduate laboratory. The microscope will use custom designed scanning heads with integrated cantilever sensors capable of operation at low temperatures and interfaced to existing control electronics. A low vibration refrigerator of the pulse tube type (which has no moving parts) will be acquired and used to cool the scanning head. The choice of the pulse tube refrigerator (which operate in any physical orientation) enables the positioning of the scanning head on top facilitating rapid sample access. The integrated cantilever sensing scheme will simplify the future marriage of the microscope to other instruments such as electron microscopes. It will also enable study of biological samples and solid liquid interfaces where optical detection schemes do not work.. The integrated detection scheme should also be attractive to emerging industrial microelectronics where rapid nanometer scale flaw detection is desired.This award from the Instrumentation for Materials Research program, the University of Virginia will develop a new microscope using high frequency sound waves and operating over a wide temperature range to map elastic features on a nanometer length scale in solid state materials of interest to physics, materials science, biology and engineering as well as to enhance teaching in the physics undergraduate laboratory. The microscope will be of the scanning type and images will be obtained digitally. The acoustic sensor for the microscope will be fabricated using integrated microelectronic technologies. This integrated sensor scheme simplifies the future marriage of the proposed microscope to other instruments such as electron microscopes. It will also enable the imaging of biological samples and solid liquid interfaces with resolution better than that obtained optically. The development of this new scanning acoustic microscope will benefit the study of crystalline and non-crystalline solids and will have a wide ranging impact including in the area of emerging microelectronic processes where rapid nanometer scale flaw detection is desired.