Scanning Probe Microscopy of Polymer, Biopolymer and Semicrystalline Surface Nanostructures

这项研究计划将发展表面敏感光学和化学，以了解光能如何在材料表面流动。强光场提供了整合电子学和光子学、诱导化学反应和检测疾病的机会，但前方还有许多挑战。 拟议工作中要解决的第一个挑战是如何以所需的频率和在正确的空间位置可靠地产生和维持强场。这将需要开发一种追踪能量传递的方法：将能量置于特定模式，并观察能量如何在材料结构中移动，这将是研究团队工作的一部分。将研究有望制造高速器件的材料，如石墨烯和氮化硼。 第二个挑战是确定材料缺陷的作用，因为它们可能会降低由材料制成的设备的性能。更好地理解缺陷或使能量随机化的交叉点，将导致可控界面的设计原则，其中能量传递可以在所需的模式之间进行引导。将模型与实验数据进行比较。 这项工作还将检验与表面声子波相关的强大电场可以用来驱动电子跃迁和基本化学反应的假设。这一发展被认为是能量如何通过使用逝去的场注入反应系统的特殊结果，并可能提供一条更有效的能量产生和化学反应光催化的途径。 这项工作还包括开发新的表面波方法，以开发高灵敏度的细胞表面蛋白质和模型细胞界面蛋白质聚集体的检测器。对控制膜内自组装的力量将有更深入的理解。光学探测器可以集成到平台中，以定位具有疾病特征的细胞。 这个项目将研究离子如何结合到表面，并在微小的管道中传导，例如氮化硼纳米管。后者的实际成果是，例如，在淡水河流流入海水的地方，离子选择性导体可以用于发电。 首席调查员有指导高素质人员的丰富历史。在这项工作中，将至少培养8名研究生和2名博士后，以及本科生。

This research program will develop surface sensitive optics and chemistry to understand how light energy flows at the surfaces of materials. Intense light fields offer opportunities to integrate electronics and photonics, to induce chemical reactions, and to detect disease, but there are many challenges ahead. The first challenge to be addressed in the proposed work is how to reliably generate and sustain the intense fields at the desired frequencies and at the correct locations in space. This will require the development of a method to trace energy transduction: to put the energy into a particular mode and watch how the energy moves through the material structure, which will be part of the research team’s work. Materials that are promising for creating high speed devices, such as graphene and boron nitride, will be examined. The second challenge is to identify the roles of material defects because they threaten to decrease the performance of devices that could be made from the materials. Better understanding of the defects, or intersections that randomize energy, will lead to design principles for controlled interfaces, where energy transduction can be guided between desired modes. Comparisons between models and experimental data will be made. The work will also test the hypothesis that the strong electric fields associated with surface phonon waves can be used to drive electronic transitions and basic chemical reactions. This development is anticipated as a special consequence of how the energy is injected into the reaction system, by the use of evanescent fields, and could provide a path to more efficient energy production and chemical reaction photocatalysis. The work also includes the development new surface wave methods to develop highly sensitive detectors of proteins at cell surfaces and protein aggregates at model cell interfaces. Deeper understanding of the forces that govern self-assembly within membranes will result. The optical detectors can be integrated into platforms to locate cells that are characteristic of disease. This project will examine how ions bind to surfaces and conduct in tiny conduits, such as boron nitride nanotubes. Practical outcomes of the latter are, for example, ion selective conductors could be used in generating electrical power where freshwater rivers flow into seawater. The principal investigator has a strong history of mentoring highly qualified personnel. In the work at least 8 graduate students and 2 post-doctorals will be trained, along with undergraduates.