SBIR Phase I: Optical Delivery System for In Situ Heating and Excitation in the Transmission Electron Microscope

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This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop an optical delivery system compatible with a transmission electron microscope (TEM) that will facilitate atomic-scale imaging and characterization at high-temperatures and excited states. The most critical and far-reaching broader impact of the proposed system is the new science/discovery that it will enable. Imaging and characterization at the nano- and atomic-scale are critical to advancing new materials and technologies, which are in turn critical to research and industry laboratories. The instrumentation will enable researchers to uncover high-temperature and excited-state materials phenomena in unique temperature and temporal regimes previously inaccessible. The successful development of the proposed instrumentation will generate revenue and incubate several follow-on products, which in turn will create jobs. Year 5 will focus on both industry and research laboratories and market targets for both existing and new TEM sales. Conveniently, the system can be adapted for other materials characterization techniques to broaden the impact of the innovation. The intellectual merit of this project is the design, assembly, and testing of an optical delivery system specifically suitable for nano-and atomic-scale characterization in the TEM. The innovation delivers a system with unprecedented ability to manipulate materials in the TEM via the localized photothermal and photoexcited modalities. The photothermal modality will enable agile, non-invasive, and ubiquitous access to TEM specimens and enable unique temperature and temporal regimes not accessible with standard resistive heating systems. The excitation modality will enable researchers to image and characterize optical-excited states of materials at the nanoscale. The proposed instrumentation consists of dual fiber-coupled optical heating and excitation channels housed on a specially designed nanomanipulator for accurate x-y-z positioning. In addition to the hardware development, appropriate software controls will be developed for the optical sources and the nanomanipulator system. Finally, in-microscope testing of the in situ heating and excitation will be performed at the University of Tennessee. Specifically, three tasks are proposed for the in-microscope testing/validation: (1) in situ high-temperature imaging, (2) photothermal adventitious carbon decontamination from graphene, and (3) in situ optical excitation of plasmonic nanoparticles during electron energy loss/gain spectroscopy.