Acquisition of an Atomic Force Microscope for Materials Research and Education

这笔重大研究仪器瑞拨款支持购买一台扫描探针显微镜(SPM)，用于材料研究和教育。所选的SPM允许使用热阶段和冷阶段的温度变化。出于研究目的，该仪器具有所需的测量模式、灵敏度、分辨率和采集软件，以检查弹性体和聚合物的组成-结构-性能关系，调查磁性形状记忆合金中的磁畴和孪晶界，评估薄膜的表面粗糙度，表征各向异性超导体中的缺陷结构，并提供关于纳米压印特征的尺寸和质量的定量反馈。这些主题影响了电信、微机械加工、工业加工、聚合物科学和纳米技术行业。几门课程将受益于SPM广泛的扫描测量能力，包括绘制表面形貌、硬度、弹性模数、接触摩擦、磁区和隧道电流的地图。聚合物科学、纳米技术和磁学已被广泛应用于新技术的开发，这些材料科学的各个领域对基础研究的需求持续存在。毫无疑问，扫描探针显微镜(SPM)引领了这些领域的许多最新进展。收购SPM将使教员能够扩大目前的研究努力，并继续促进已经在进行的跨学科合作。此外，此次收购将允许研究人员与产业界一起启动新的项目，并将帮助学生为这些领域的创造性贡献做好准备。

This Major Research Instrumentation RUI grant supports the acquisition of a scanning probe microscope (SPM)) for use in materials research and education. The selected SPM allows for temperature variation using hot and cold stages. For research purposes, the instrument has the needed measurement modes, sensitivity, resolution, and acquisition software to examine composition-structure-property relationships of elastomers and polymers, investigate magnetic domains and twin boundaries in magnetic shape memory alloys, assess surface roughness in thin films, characterize the defect structure in anisotropic superconductors, and provide quantitative feedback regarding dimension and quality of nanoimprinted features. These are topics that impact telecommunications, micromachining, industrial processing, polymer science, and nanotechnology industries. Several courses will benefit from SPM's broad array of scanning measurement capabilities, which include mapping of surface topography, hardness, elastic moduli, contact friction, magnetic domains, and tunneling current.Polymer science, nanotechnology, and magnetism have been extensively used in the development of new technologies and there is continued demand for fundamental research within these various fields of materials science. Without a doubt, scanning probe microscopy (SPM) has spearheaded many recent advances in these fields. Acquisition of an SPM will permit the faculty to expand current research efforts and continue to foster interdisciplinary collaborations already underway. In addition, the acquisition will allow researchers to initiate new projects with industry and will help prepare students for creative contributions in these areas.