PFI-TT: Nanoscale Chemical Imaging Spectroscopy using Novel Fiber Probes

这个创新技术转化伙伴关系（PFI-TT）项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是使纳米级化学成像技术从严格的研究实验室到工业在线过程。纳米科学和纳米技术自成立以来已经彻底改变了各种市场。然而，纳米材料的大规模制造一直滞后，部分原因是无法有效地鉴定和控制纳米级生产方法。拟议的项目将开发一种用户友好的、实用的、潜在的便携式化学成像系统。这项技术将通过改善未来生产方法的质量控制和实现从数据存储、光通信到癌症检测的新应用，彻底改变纳米技术。探针显微镜市场约占53亿美元显微镜市场的4%，由于测量复杂性和缺乏化学灵敏度而受到限制。拟议的技术将消除这些限制，为显微镜市场空间的增长创造机会。本项目拟将所发明的等离子体光纤探针与商用探针显微镜相结合，制成纳米级化学成像显微镜的原型。纳米级化学成像已被证明在材料科学、生物传感、光电子学和催化等一系列应用领域具有潜力。然而，由于复杂的操作挑战，包括光学对准时间、低尖端可靠性、低信噪比（SNR）以及对技术人员的高要求，因此商业应用有限。该PFI-TT项目将承担光纤尖端增强拉曼光谱仪（F-TERS）的原型设计活动，这是一种基于光纤探针的纳米级化学成像显微镜，旨在克服这些挑战，同时仍然提供样品表面的化学成分和纳米级形貌成像。此外，F-TERS还提供了显著提高信噪比的潜力，从而实现了其他应用。这将通过1)克服用原子力显微镜（AFM）展示F-TERS功能的已知障碍，以及2)在现实环境中使用独立算子量化F-TERS的性能来实现。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is to enable the nanoscale chemical imaging technology from strictly research labs to industrial in-line processes. Nanoscience and nanotechnology have revolutionized a variety of markets since their inception. Nonetheless, large-scale manufacturing of nanomaterials has lagged, partly because of the inability to efficiently qualify and control nanoscale production methods. The proposed project will develop a user-friendly, practical, and potentially portable chemical imaging system. This technology will revolutionize nanotechnology by improving quality control of future production methods and enabling new applications, ranging from data storage and optical communication to cancer detection. The probe microscope market accounts for approximately 4% of the $5.3 billion microscopy market and has been limited by measurement complexity and lack of chemical sensitivity. The proposed technology would remove these limitations, creating an opportunity for growth within the microscopy market space.The proposed project is to prototype the transformative nanoscale chemical imaging microscopy by integrating the invented plasmonic fiber probes with commercial probe microscopes. Nanoscale chemical imaging had demonstrated potential for use in an array of applications including material science, bio-sensing, optoelectronics, and catalysis. However, due to the complex operating challenges including optical alignment times, low tip reliability, low Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), and highly skilled technician requirements, there has been limited commercial application. This PFI-TT project will undertake prototyping activities of a fiber tip-enhanced Raman spectroscope (F-TERS), an optical fiber probe-based nanoscale chemical imaging microscopy designed to overcome these challenges while still providing the chemical composition and nanoscale morphology imaging of a sample surface. In addition, F-TERS also provides the potential for significantly improved SNR, enabling additional applications. This will be accomplished by 1) overcoming the identified hurdles of demonstrating F-TERS functionality with atomic force microscope (AFM), and 2) quantifying F-TERS performance in real-world environments with independent operators.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.