Scanning Probe Microscopy of Polymer, Biopolymer and Semicrystalline Surface Nanostructures

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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.**