MRI: Development of an Ultrafast Time-Resolved Microscope for Imaging of Charge Carrier Dynamics in Complex Materials

有了这一重大研究仪器计划的奖励，匹兹堡大学将能够开发一种独特的仪器，用于研究固态材料中的动量和空间分辨电荷载流子动力学。光电子显微镜和超快激光激发的双光子光电子发射相结合，将用于空间分辨率小于20纳米、时间分辨率小于1飞秒的固体材料中电子的时空成像。提出的时间分辨光电子显微镜将提供比目前现有技术高几个数量级的分辨率，这是获得固体材料中量子力学现象的动态图像所必需的。这项研究的预期结果是更好地了解量子体系中的电荷载流子动力学，发现新的物理现象，提高对光学和电子器件的理解，并对学生进行仪器科学和纳米科学的教育。有了这个重大研究仪器计划的奖励，匹兹堡大学将能够开发出一种独特的仪器，用于研究固体材料中的动量和空间分辨电荷载流子动力学。随着光学和电子器件的尺寸缩小到纳米级，描述其性质的物理学从经典领域转变为量子领域。这就需要仪器在纳米尺度上对动态电学性质进行成像。即将开发的一种独特的时间分辨显微镜仪器将提供前所未有的能力，以不到1飞秒的时间和不到20纳米的空间分辨率制作电影，了解固态材料中的电子如何在能量、空间和时间中演化。该开发项目将对学生进行激光、真空和显微技术方面的教育，这些技术处于纳米技术和设备物理的前沿。时间分辨显微镜将为理解新的物理现象和开发先进的光学和电子设备提供不可或缺的战略工具。

With this award from the Major Research Instrumentation Program, the University of Pittsburgh will be able to develop a unique instrument for studying both momentum and spatially resolved charge carrier dynamics in solid state materials. The combination of photoemission electron microscopy and ultrafast laser excitation of two-photon photoemission will be used for the spatiotemporal imaging of electrons in solid-state materials with less than twenty nanometer spatial resolution and less than one femtosecond temporal resolution. The proposed time-resolved photoemission electron microscope will offer several orders-of-magnitude better resolution over the currently available technology, which is necessary to obtain dynamical images quantum mechanical phenomena in solid state materials. The expected outcome of the research is a better understanding of charge carrier dynamics in the quantum regime, discovery of new physical phenomena, improved understanding of optical and electronic devices, and education of students in instrument science and nano-science.With this award from the Major Research Instrumentation Program, the University of Pittsburgh will be able to develop a unique instrument for studying both momentum and spatially resolved charge carrier dynamics in solid state materials. As the size of optical and electronic devices shrinks to the nanometer scale, the physics describing their properties changes from the classical to the quantum regime. This presents a need for instrumentation for imaging of the dynamical electronic properties on nanometer scale. A unique instrument for time-resolved microscopy to be developed will provide an unprecedented ability to create movies with less than one femtosecond temporal and less than twenty nanometers spatial resolution of how electrons in a solid state material evolve in energy, space, and time. The development project will educate students in techniques of lasers, vacuum, and microscopy at the forefront of nanotechnology and device physics. The time-resolved microscope will provide an indispensable and strategic tool for understanding novel physical phenomena and for developing advanced optical and electronic devices.