US-Germany Cooperative Research: High Resolution Surface Zone Analysis in the Transregional Center on Process Chains for the Replication of Complex Optical Components

该奖项支持唐·卢卡和俄克拉荷马州立大学的学生与德国亚琛和不来梅大学的广泛合作。PI的NSF研究项目是美国-德国跨区域合作研究中心的一部分，该中心涉及16个技术项目，重点是开发用于下一代信息技术和电信、医疗保健、生命科学、传感、照明和能源转换的复杂、高质量光学元件的制造工艺。在设计、涂料、复制技术和测量科学和技术领域有技术项目。长期研究中心的资金，除了这里描述的项目外，主要由德国国家科学基金会（NSF）的德国同行——德国研究基金会（Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft）提供。美国项目“高分辨率表面区域分析”的研究重点是研究溶胶-凝胶衍生的金刚石可旋转硬模涂层的近表面机械性质，该涂层将用于超精密聚合物光学和玻璃的批量生产。纳米压痕将用于研究硬质涂层的近表面力学性能，包括弹性模量和硬度，以及表面残余应力状态。深度剖面研究将在横截面和锥形截面涂层上进行，采用一种新开发的近表面区域分析方法。利用纳米刮擦技术研究模具涂层的粘附和分层行为。该项目还将进一步有助于开发先进的表面表征工具，以评估纳米尺度下的近表面机械状态。除了为美国研究人员提供广泛的德国专业知识和设施外，这项合作还将使在国际环境中培养几名美国研究生和博士后成为可能。这将为学生提供国际研究合作的经验，并使他们有可能建立国际联系，从而在他们的职业生涯中继续发挥作用。

0352377LuccaThis award supports Don Lucca and students from the Oklahoma State University in an extensive collaboration with the universities of Aachen and Bremen in Germany. The PI's NSF research project is part of a U.S.-Germany Transregional Collaborative Research Center that involves sixteen technical projects centered on the development of processes for the manufacture of complex, high-quality optical components for next generation applications in information technology and telecommunications, health care, the life sciences, sensing, lighting, and energy conversion. There are technical projects in the areas of deign, had coatings, replication techniques, and measurement science and technology. Funding for the long-term research center, with the exception of the project here described, is being supplied mainly by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the German counterpart to NSF. The research focus of the U.S. project, "High Resolution Surface Zone Analysis," is the investigation of the near-surface mechanical nature of sol-gel derived diamond-turnable, hard mold coatings which will be used in the volume production of ultraprecision optics of polymers and glasses. Nanoindentation will be used to study the near-surface mechanical properties including elastic modulus and hardness, and the surface residual stress state of the hard coatings. Depth profiling studies will e performed on cross-sectioned and taper-sectioned coatings with a newly developed method for near surface zone analysis. The adhesion and delamination behavior of the mold coatings will be explored with the use of nanoscratching. The project will also further contribute to the development of advanced surface characterization tools needed for assessing the near-surface mechanical state at the nanometer scale.In addition to making extensive German expertise and facilities available to the US group of researchers, the collaboration will make it possible to train several US graduate and postdoctoral students in an international setting. This will give the students experience in international research collaborations and make it possible for them to establish international connections that could continue to be productive throughout their careers.