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

[09:23 . 18]技术摘要：提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发展和表征纳米级化学。这将通过配备最先进的俄歇电子能谱（AES）和x射线光电子能谱（XPS）系统以及一套样品夹和样品修饰环境来实现。这些能力将使纳米级表面化学在沉积、蚀刻和表面改性过程中的演变能够在与纳米技术、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进行原位研究。具体来说，该仪器将使样品加热、冷却、溅射、氧化、反应和沉积在环境中，这些环境与新一代AES和XPS方法提供的精致化学灵敏度和分辨率相结合。具体的研究项目包括加强对与未来纳米电子结构相关的半导体纳米结构系统中纳米级表面化学演变的理解，在新型纳米结构纳米叶片中控制氢的储存和释放的反应。材料，杂化有机工程？金属薄膜系统，腐蚀的基本纳米尺度机制，以及三维纳米尺度结构和化学测量新方法的发展。这些研究项目涉及伦斯勒理工学院多个部门的大约10名教师和高级研究人员，12名研究生和几名本科生和博士后研究人员。这代表了原位实验领域的一个重要的智力临界质量。该仪器还将为研究和教育的整合提供重大机会。它将被整合到RPI的一系列广泛的教育和培训活动中，包括高中教材营、本科研究项目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未被充分代表的群体。外行总结：许多科学和工程的前沿都需要理解和控制原子在材料表面和界面上的行为。这些前沿领域包括为更节能和更环保的化学处理开发改进的催化剂，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尺度机制，这些过程会降解并危及我们的国家基础设施，以及开发用于控制氢的储存和释放的新材料，这可能有助于新能源的发展。氢经济?。这些挑战将通过获取和开发一套控制材料样品环境的新能力来解决，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。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完成。它将为本科生和研究生提供最先进的实验训练。它还将提供令人兴奋的视觉材料，提供材料系统中基本原子过程的引人注目的演示，这些演示将集成到课堂和扩展活动中，如初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.