MRI: Acquisition of a UV-visible-near IR microspectrophotometer

非技术性总结：无论是用于医学、能源还是信息技术，要理解和利用材料的显著特性，都需要能够准确探测材料结构和特性的仪器。 随着技术的进步和材料尺寸的缩小，用于与材料交互和研究材料的工具也必须简化。 分光光度计是利用光探测材料的仪器，几乎是材料研究的每个领域的重要工具，但大多数分光光度计发出的光束是毫米而不是微米。 该项目通过购买微型分光光度计，满足区域和国家对具有微型（微）光束的先进仪器的需求。 该仪器提供了前所未有的能力，可将光聚焦到材料的微观（小于1微米）区域，并定量分析其结构和性能。 该仪器融合了五种传统上不同的测量技术，以深入了解微结构和纳米结构材料的物理和化学性质。 这种新的研究能力使研究能够跨越多个研究领域，包括3D打印，太阳能电池和癌症诊断。 高中，本科和研究生的教育是通过实践培训和获得显微分光光度计先进。 该仪器将成为学生探索材料特性、表面和光物质相互作用的课程和培训活动的焦点。 该仪器位于一个共享仪器设施中，具有提供广泛访问的良好记录，能够对区域大学、政府、非营利用户和行业产生积极影响的教育和研究活动。技术摘要：纳米材料、生物材料及其复合材料研究的进展对传统的光基光谱技术提出了更高的要求。尤其是那些缺少用于分辨结构、组成和性质的纳米至微米尺度变化所需的聚焦光学器件的系统。 本计画的主要研究仪器为显微分光光度计，它利用高倍显微镜的放大光学，将五种传统的分光光度计整合在一个平台上。 该仪器进行透射，反射，荧光，偏振和拉曼光谱，使一个单一的材料的一个区域，以探测在一系列的每一种技术。 通过采用石英光学器件，可用光谱从300 nm延伸到2100 nm，这为探索小带隙材料（如太阳能电池和光纤通信中感兴趣的材料）或探索细胞诊断中的无标记检测创造了新的机会。 该计划的主要目标是在查佩尔山分析和纳米纤维实验室的共享仪器设施中建立一个显微分光光度计，以利用该仪器在电子和光子材料，软物质和生物材料领域的能力，并使用该仪器作为教育来自查佩尔山和邻近机构的多样化学生的平台。

Non-technical summary: Understanding and harnessing the remarkable properties of materials, whether for medicine, energy, or information technology, requires instruments that can accurately probe a material's structure and properties. As technologies advance and materials reduce in size, the tools used to interact with and study materials must also miniaturize. Spectrophotometers, instruments that employ light to probe materials, are essential tools in virtually every area of materials research, and yet the light beams that are emitted from most spectrophotometers are millimeters across rather than micrometers. This project addresses regional and national needs for advanced instrumentation with miniaturized (micro) light beams via the acquisition of a microspectrophotometer. This instrument provides unprecedented capabilities for focusing light into microscopic (less than one micrometer) regions of a material and quantitatively analyzing its structure and properties. This instrument merges five traditionally distinct measurement techniques to yield rich insight into the physical and chemical properties of microstructured and nanostructured materials. This new research capability enables studies with applications that span across multiple areas of research, including 3-D printing, solar cells, and cancer diagnostics. Education of high school, undergraduate and graduate students is advanced through hands-on training and access to the microspectrophotometer. The instrument will be a focal point for classes and training activities for students that explore material properties, surfaces, and light-matter interaction. The location of the instrument in a shared instrument facility with a strong track record of providing broad access enables educational and research activities that positively impact regional universities, government, non-profit users, and industry.Technical summary: Advancements in research on nanomaterials, biological materials, and their composites are placing increased demands on traditional light-based spectroscopies?especially those that lack the focusing optics needed to resolve nano-to-micrometer scale variations in structure, composition, and properties. The major research instrumention acquired in this project a microspectrophotometer, which combines five traditional spectroscopies into a single platform by using the magnifying optics of a high-powered microscope. The instrument performs transmission, reflection, fluorescence, polarization, and Raman spectroscopies, enabling a single region of a single material to be probed in series by each technique. By employing quartz optics, the usable spectrum extends from 300 nm to 2100 nm, which creates new opportunities to explore small band-gap materials such as those of interest in solar cells and fiber optic communications or to explore label-free detection in cellular diagnostics. The principal objectives of this program are to establish a microspectrophotometer in a shared instrumentation facility in the Chapel Hill Analytical and Nanofabrication Laboratory, to exploit the instrument's capabilities in the fields of electronic and photonic materials, soft matter, and biomaterials, and to use the instrument as a platform for educating a diverse body of students from UNC Chapel Hill and neighboring institutions.