MRI: Acquisition of Magneto-Optical Microscopy Instrumentation for Research and Education

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Technical abstract:This award supports the acquisition of a warm bore superconducting magnet and spectroscopy instrumentation for a state-of-the-art magneto-optical microscopy facility at the University of Vermont. This facility will offer the unique capability of simultaneously acquiring spectrally, temporally and spatially-resolved spin-dependent information from many different types of materials, such as semiconductor or ferromagnetic nanostructures, biomolecules or polymer structures. It will enable a wide range of experiments from condensed matter to nanotechnology and bio-imaging. Projects benefiting from this facility include: magneto-optical studies of spin-dependent phenomena in wide bandgap semiconductors, spatially-resolved spectroscopy of spin injection and transport in single-crystal organic semiconductors, magnetic circular dichroism of proteins and time ?resolved magneto-optical spectroscopy of semiconductor nanocrystals. Use of the equipment will be incorporated into newly developed courses such as "Physical Optics", that have a very strong demo/hands-on component which takes place in the research laboratory.Non ?technical abstract: This award supports the acquisition of a 5 Tesla superconducting magnet and research instrumentation for a state-of-the-art magneto-optical microscopy facility at the University of Vermont. This facility integrates polarization-resolved optical microscopy techniques traditionally used to characterize electronic and structural properties of materials, into the high magnetic field environment. It enables researchers to investigate fundamental quantum mechanical behavior of electrons in a variety of semiconductor nanostructures, proteins and polymers, of interest for many applications ranging from quantum computing to nanotechnologies and imaging-based diagnostics. The users will take advantage of the magnetic field-mediated coupling between polarized light and a quantum property of electrons called ?spin? to simultaneously obtain spatially and temporally?resolved information on the electrons response to external stimuli such as electric and magnetic fields or strain. Use of the equipment will be incorporated into newly developed courses such as "Physical Optics", that have a very strong demo/hands-on component which takes place in the research laboratory.