MRI: Acquisition of Instrumentation for Nanoscale In-Situ Studies in Auger Electron and X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy

0923181HullRensselaer理工学院技术概述：拟议的仪器将建立一个现场实验室，用于在广泛的材料系统中进行纳米级化学的演变和表征。这将通过为最先进的俄歇电子能谱(AES)和X射线光电子能谱(XPS)系统配备一套样品保持器和样品修改环境来实现。这些能力将使人们能够在与纳米技术、可再生能源、国家基础设施维护和未来几代电子技术相关的广泛材料系统中原位研究沉积、蚀刻和表面修饰过程中纳米尺度表面化学的演变。具体地说，该仪器将使样品能够在环境中加热、冷却、溅射、氧化、反应和沉积，这些环境结合了新一代AES和XPS方法所提供的精细的化学灵敏度和分辨率。具体的研究项目包括加强对半导体纳米结构体系中纳米尺度表面化学演变的理解，这些纳米结构体系与未来的纳米电子体系相关，控制氢在新型纳米结构？纳米刀片？中储存和释放的反应。材料，杂化有机工程？金属薄膜系统，腐蚀的基本纳米机制，以及三维纳米结构和化学测量的新方法的发展。这些研究项目总共涉及伦斯勒理工学院多个系的约十名教职员工和高级研究人员、十几名研究生以及几名本科生和博士后研究人员。这代表了现场实验领域的一个主要的智力临界量。该仪器还将在研究和教育的整合方面提供重大机会。它将被整合到RPI的一系列教育和培训活动中，包括高中材料夏令营、本科生研究计划以及本科生和研究生课程。这些活动吸引了大量在科学和工程领域任职人数不足的群体。外行人摘要：科学和工程的许多前沿领域都需要了解和控制原子在材料表面和界面上的行为。这些前沿包括为更节能和环境友好的化学处理开发改进的催化剂，为推进电子设备设计开发新材料和新结构，了解腐蚀过程的原子尺度机理，这些腐蚀过程退化并危及我们的大部分国家基础设施，以及开发可能有助于新的氢经济的氢的受控储存和释放的新材料。这些挑战将通过获得和开发一套新的能力来控制材料样品的环境，并监测这些样品的原子尺度化学如何随着环境(例如温度、周围氧气的压力、表面新原子层的生长)的变化而变化来应对。通过这种方式，可以更好地了解材料在原子尺度上如何随着环境的变化而变化，因此可以更好地设计材料来适应和优化这些变化。该项目将由伦斯勒理工学院的教师、学生和研究人员组成的跨学科团队执行。它将为本科生和研究生提供最先进的实验培训。它还将提供令人兴奋和可视化的材料，提供令人信服的材料系统中基本原子过程的演示，这些材料将被整合到课堂和推广活动中，如为初中生和高中生举办的材料夏令营。

0923181HullRensselaer Polytechnic InstituteTechnical Summary: The proposed instrumentation will establish an in-situ laboratory for the evolution and characterization of nanoscale chemistry in a broad range of materials systems. This will be achieved by equipping state-of-the-art Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES) and X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) systems with a set of sample holders and specimen modification environments. These capabilities will enable in-situ studies of the evolution of nanoscale surface chemistry during deposition, etching, and surface modification in a wide range of materials systems of relevance to nanotechnology, renewable energy, the maintenance of national infrastructure, and future generations of electronics technologies. Specifically the instrumentation will enable sample heating, cooling, sputtering, oxidation, reaction and deposition in environments that are coupled to the exquisite chemical sensitivity and resolution afforded by new generation AES and XPS methods. Specific research projects include enhancing the understanding of the evolution of nanoscale surface chemistry in semiconductor nanostructure systems of relevance to future nanoelectronic architectures, the reactions that govern storage and release of hydrogen in novel nanostructured ?nano-blade? materials, the engineering of hybrid organic ? metal thin film systems, the fundamental nanoscale mechanisms of corrosion, and the development of new methods for the measurement of three dimensional nanoscale structures and chemistry. Together these research projects span about ten faculty and senior researchers, a dozen graduate students, and several undergraduate and postdoctoral researchers across multiple departments at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. This represents a major intellectual critical mass for the field of in-situ experimentation. The instrumentation will also enable major opportunities in the integration of research and education. It will be integrated into a broad set of education and training activities at RPI including high school materials camps, undergraduate research programs, and undergraduate and graduate courses. These activities engage large numbers of under-represented groups in science and engineering. Layman Summary: Many of the frontiers of science and engineering require understanding and control of the behavior of atoms at the surfaces and interfaces of materials. Such frontiers include the development of improved catalysts for more energy efficient and environmentally benign chemical processing, the development of new materials and structures for advancing electronic device designs, understanding the atomic-scale mechanisms of corrosion processes that degrade and endanger much of our national infrastructure, and the development of new materials for controlled storage and release of hydrogen that may contribute to the new ?hydrogen economy?. These challenges will be addressed by acquiring and developing a set of new capabilities for controlling the environment of samples of materials, and monitoring how the atomic scale chemistry of those samples varies as the environment (e.g. temperature, pressure of surrounding oxygen, growth of new atomic layers on the surface) changes. In this way, it can be better understood how the material changes at the atomic scale in response to its environment, and therefore materials can be better designed to adapt to and optimize those changes. This project will be performed by an interdisciplinary team of faculty, students and researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. It will provide state-of-the-art experimental training for both undergraduate and graduate students. It will also provide exciting and visual material that will provide compelling demonstrations of fundamental atomic processes in material systems that will be integrated into the classroom and into outreach activities such as materials camps for middle and high school students.