MRI: Development of Rapid Annealing and in situ Characterization System

由韦恩州立大学的多学科团队共同开发的这一仪器开发项目创建了一种快速退火和表征系统(RACS)，该系统能够对外部制备的薄膜样品和纳米材料进行快速热处理，然后使用各种非侵入性技术对这些样品进行原位表征。有了这个高度灵活的系统，研究人员将开发和改进技术，以表征各种缺陷是如何改变材料性能的。研究发现，包括位错、晶界、杂质掺杂和空位在内的缺陷会极大地改变材料的磁性、电性和光学性质。这些缺陷对于确定纳米材料的性质是很重要的，因为它们的比表面积比在体相系统中要高得多。这项研究的最终目标将集中在氮化物和超导薄膜上，目的是控制缺陷的类型、密度和分布，以便能够合成具有特定性能的材料。定制设计的真空室具有快速退火能力，与带有波色散谱仪(WDS)的扫描电子显微镜(WDS)结合使用JEOL开发的专有气闸，研究人员将允许研究人员通过在一个真空室中进行热退火来修改缺陷结构，然后在第二个真空室中对材料特性和缺陷结构进行研究，而无需将样品暴露在环境条件下。WDS光谱仪是这项研究的重要组成部分，因为它将使研究人员能够确定氧空位的浓度，这是使用其他技术非常困难的。RACS的独特能力将被用来系统地探索各种缺陷对纳米系统基本性质的影响，从而加深对如何在纳米结构材料中调节材料性质的理解。利用RACS建立优化材料性能的工艺参数将允许开发可扩展的制造协议，这将促进这些新型纳米结构材料纳入商业设备。这一系统的开发将为博士后研究人员以及研究生和本科生提供宝贵的培训，特别是包括底特律大都市区代表性不足的少数族裔。

AbstractThis instrument development project by a multi-disciplinary team from Wayne State University creates a Rapid Annealing and Characterization System (RACS) capable of rapidly annealing thin film samples and nanomaterials prepared externally and then characterizing these samples in situ using a variety of non-invasive techniques. With this highly flexible system, the researchers will develop and improve techniques to characterize how a variety of defects modify the materials properties. Defects, including dislocations, grain boundaries, impurity dopants, and vacancies have been found to dramatically alter the magnetic, electrical, and optical properties of materials. These defects are important in establishing the properties of nanomaterials, owing to the much higher surface to volume ratio than in bulk systems. The eventual goal of this study, which will focus on nitrides and superconducting thin films, is to control the type, density, and the distribution of defects to enable the synthesis of materials having specifically tailored properties. The custom designed vacuum chamber with rapid annealing capabilities coupled to a Scanning Electron Microscope with Wave Dispersion Spectrometer (WDS) using a proprietary airlock developed by JEOL will allow researchers to modify the defect structure by thermal annealing in one chamber and then conduct studies on the materials properties and defect structure in the second chamber, all without exposing the samples to ambient conditions. The WDS spectrometer is an important component of this study, as it will allow researchers to determine the concentration of oxygen vacancies, which is exceedingly difficult to determine using other techniques. The unique capabilities of RACS will be utilized to systematically probe the effects of a variety of defects on the fundamental properties of nanoscale systems, leading to a deeper understanding of how to tune the materials properties in nanostructured materials. Establishing the processing parameters for optimizing materials properties using RACS would allow the development of scalable fabrication protocols, which would promote the incorporation of these novel nanostructured materials into commercial devices. The development of this system will provide valuable training for a postdoctoral researcher as well as graduate and undergraduate students, specifically including underrepresented minorities in the Detroit metropolitan area.