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

0923181HullRensselaer Polytechnic InstituteTechnical Summary：拟议的仪器将建立一个原位实验室，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）系统配备一套样品架和样品修改环境来实现。 这些能力将使在沉积，蚀刻和表面改性过程中的纳米级表面化学的演变，在广泛的材料系统相关的纳米技术，可再生能源，国家基础设施的维护，和未来几代的电子技术的原位研究。 具体来说，该仪器将使样品在与新一代AES和XPS方法提供的精致化学灵敏度和分辨率相结合的环境中加热、冷却、溅射、氧化、反应和沉积。 具体的研究项目包括提高纳米尺度表面化学的相关未来的纳米电子架构的半导体纳米结构系统的演变的理解，控制存储和释放氢的反应，在新的纳米结构？纳米刀片材料，混合有机物的工程学？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新方法的发展。 这些研究项目涵盖了伦斯勒理工学院多个部门的约10名教师和高级研究人员，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主要知识临界质量。 该仪器还将为研究和教育的一体化提供重大机会。 它将被整合到RPI广泛的教育和培训活动中，包括高中材料营，本科研究计划以及本科和研究生课程。这些活动吸引了大量在科学和工程领域代表性不足的群体。 Layman总结：科学和工程的许多前沿需要理解和控制材料表面和界面上原子的行为。 这些前沿领域包括开发更节能和环境友好的化学处理的改进催化剂，开发用于推进电子设备设计的新材料和结构，了解腐蚀过程的原子级机制，这些机制会降低和危害我们国家的大部分基础设施，以及开发用于控制氢的储存和释放的新材料，这些材料可能有助于实现新的？氢经济？ 这些挑战将通过获取和开发一套新的能力来解决，这些能力用于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，表面上新原子层的生长）的变化而变化。 通过这种方式，可以更好地理解材料如何在原子尺度上响应其环境而变化，因此可以更好地设计材料以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的视觉材料，这些材料将为材料系统中的基本原子过程提供令人信服的演示，这些材料系统将被整合到课堂和外展活动中，如初中和高中学生的材料营地。

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.