MRI: Acquisition of cryogen-free low-temperature scanning-probe spectroscopy system for nanophotonic and nanoelectronic device characterization

工业化世界，特别是美国，面临着严重的氦短缺，这威胁到需要低温冷却的众多工业和医疗应用。例如，磁共振成像依靠液氦冷却高功率磁铁，为临床分析和医疗干预创建内部身体图像。氦对于美国的太空探索计划和其他民用和军用用途也是不可或缺的。该提案要求资助购买一种名为attoDRY1100的仪器，该仪器可以在极低温度和高磁场下对纳米材料和器件进行复杂的光学表征，而不需要液氦。这种无低温系统完全消除了史蒂文斯理工学院目前每年约5万美元的液氦运行成本，更重要的是，避免了每年约5000升的珍贵稀有气体消耗，从而为“绿色校园”做出了贡献。该设备将被纳入史蒂文斯的共享用户纳米光子学实验室，在那里它将满足来自史蒂文斯5个部门的30多名学生和工作人员代表11个研究小组的不断增长的用户群的需求。无低温系统将推进几个nsf资助的项目，这些项目将解决当前研究前沿纳米材料的光-物质相互作用的基本问题。这些项目还针对具有潜在变革性应用的广泛光子器件，例如国家安全和可持续能源。更广泛的影响将来自这样一个事实，即所要求的仪器将被安置在一个中央用户设施中，该设施具有对从高中到博士后研究人员的广泛学生进行纳米技术前沿研究的成功多学科培训的历史。在美国化学会的SEED项目和史蒂文斯大学的ECOES项目的框架下，PI将进一步扩大他们的外展活动，目前有数百名高中生参加，这将特别包括各种纳米技术工具的实践教育，包括attoDRY1100。本提案申请资金用于购买attoDRY1100无低温恒温器，该恒温器带有集成CFM-I扫描探针共聚焦显微镜插入件。无低温系统将使nsf资助的几个项目受益，这些项目将解决纳米材料中光-物质相互作用的基本问题，包括石墨烯和过渡金属二硫族化合物的异质结构，超清洁碳纳米管，铌酸锂微腔，生物质转化的催化表面，以及溶液处理的无机-有机混合半导体薄膜。这些项目的目标是广泛的光子器件，包括片上光电探测器、全光调制器、量子光源、薄膜有机太阳能电池和基于芝诺效应的开关，这意味着在国家安全、可持续能源等领域的变革应用。attoDRY1100仪器为正在进行的研究项目提供了丰富的新功能和测量模式。这些研究包括光致发光和光电流信号的高光谱2d映射，10nm分辨率的低温光刻技术，受限激子的磁致发光研究，表面催化的原位拉曼映射，以及单量子发射器的长期无漂移量子光学研究。

The industrialized world and the United States in particular faces a critical Helium shortage, which threatens a multitude of industrial and medical applications requiring cryogenic cooling. For example, Magnetic Resonance Imagery relies on liquid Helium to cool the high-power magnets needed to create interior body images for clinical analysis and medical intervention. Helium is also indispensable to the U.S. space exploration program and other civilian and military uses. This proposal requests funding to purchase an instrument called attoDRY1100 that allows for carrying out sophisticated optical characterization of nanomaterials and devices at extremely low temperatures and high magnetic fields without the need for liquid Helium. This cryogen-free system completely eliminates the current annual liquid Helium operation costs of about $50,000 at Stevens Institute of Technology, and more importantly, avoids the annual consumption of about 5000 liters of a precious noble gas, thereby contributing to a "greener campus". The equipment will be incorporated into the shared-user Nanophotonics Lab at Stevens where it will serve the needs of a growing user base of over 30 students and staff representing 11 research groups from 5 departments at Stevens. The cryogen-free system will advance several NSF-funded projects that address fundamental questions of the light-matter interaction of nanomaterials at the forefront of current research. These projects also target a broad range of photonic devices that have potential transformative applications, such as in national security and sustainable energy. The broader impacts will come from the fact that the requested instrument will be housed in a central user facility which has a history of successful multidisciplinary training of a broad range of students from high school to postdoctoral researchers addressing forefront research in nanotechnology. The PI's will further expand their outreach activities to currently several hundred high schools students in the framework of the SEED program of the American Chemical Society and the ECOES program at Stevens, that will specifically include hands-on education on various nanotechnology tools, including the attoDRY1100.This proposal requests funding to purchase the attoDRY1100 cryogen-free cryostat with an integrated CFM-I scanning-probe confocal microscope insert. The cryogen-free system will benefit several NSF-funded projects that address fundamental questions of the light-matter interaction in nanomaterials, which include heterostructures of graphene and transition-metal dichalcogenides, ultra-clean carbon nanotubes, lithium-niobate microcavities, catalytic surfaces for biomass conversion, and solution-processed hybrid inorganic-organic semiconductor thin films. These projects target a broad range of photonic devices, including on-chip photodetectors, all-optical modulators, quantum light sources, thin-film organic solar cells, and Zeno-effect-based switches, which imply transformative applications in national security, sustainable energy, and beyond. The attoDRY1100 instrument offers a wealth of new functionalities and measurement modes highly desirable to the ongoing research projects. These include hyperspectral 2D-mapping of photoluminescence and photocurrent signals, cryogenic photolithography with 10 nm resolution, magneto-luminescence studies of confined excitons, in-situ Raman mapping of surface catalysis, and long-term drift-free quantum-optics studies of single quantum emitters.