MRI: Acquisition of a Near-Field Optical Microscope for Multidisciplinary Research and Education at Louisiana State University

了解纳米材料的功能对于实现量子计算、纳米医学、能源和光电子学的变革性进展至关重要。但研究纳米级过程特别具有挑战性，因为它们通常非常快，空间尺寸非常小。该项目使研究人员能够通过获奖的多模态近场光学显微镜在超快时间和纳米级空间范围内研究功能纳米材料。显微镜测量飞秒（千万亿分之一，或十亿分之一秒的百万分之一）激光聚焦到直径为人类头发万分之一的金属尖端上的反射光，同时尖端扫描纳米材料的表面。除了推进发现和理解，显微镜还促进了路易斯安那州立大学（LSU）的教学和培训。该仪器位于先进微结构和器件中心（CAMD），该中心在近30年的运营中一直是数百名科学和工程本科生和研究生的培训基地。在LSU-CAMD安装显微镜将同步加速器科学家引入近场光学显微镜，反之亦然，提高了双方研究培训的整体深度。显微镜的收购还增加了四个高本科生和研究生水平的科学和工程课程，以及NSF赞助的本科生网站在LSU的研究经验。固态材料中的纳米级化学过程发生在阿秒到纳秒的时间尺度上，空间尺寸低于100 nm。为了更好地理解功能纳米材料，科学家必须能够在各自的空间和时间尺度上测量和观察它们的材料特性和动力学现象。获奖的多模近场光学显微镜通过将扫描探针显微镜与一套协同光学光谱技术相关联来满足这些需求，超越衍射极限，并允许研究人员以10 nm的空间分辨率和飞秒时间分辨率揭示复杂纳米材料的稳态和动态特性。多模态显微镜为科学家提供了相关的近场光谱与以下一套实验技术：1）原子力显微镜，2）傅里叶变换红外光谱和映射与10 nm的空间分辨率，3）拉曼和尖端增强拉曼光谱，4）振幅和相位分辨近场成像，5）近场泵浦探测光谱和6）荧光寿命成像。研究团队和用户的相互联系使这款多模态近场显微镜成为路易斯安那州立大学的一个中心统一仪器，允许开发新材料，观察和工程新现象，探索量子计算，能源，光电子学和纳米医学领域的应用。该奖项由材料研究部（DMR）和化学，生物工程部，环境和运输系统（CBET）。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得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的支持。

Understanding how nanomaterials function is critical to enabling transformational advances in quantum computing, nanomedicine, energy, and optoelectronics. But studying nanoscale processes is particularly challenging because they are typically very fast with very small spatial dimensions. This project enables researchers to study functional nanomaterials in both ultrafast time and nanoscale space regimes through the awarded multimodal near-field optical microscope. The microscope measures the reflected light from a femtosecond (one quadrillionth, or one-millionth of one billionth, of a second) laser focused onto a metal tip ten-thousandth of a human hair in diameter while the tip scans the surface of a nanomaterial. Beyond advancing discovery and understanding, the microscope also promotes teaching and training at Louisiana State University (LSU). The instrument is housed at the Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices (CAMD), which has served as the training ground for hundreds of science and engineering undergraduate and graduate students in its nearly 30 years of operation. Installing the microscope at LSU-CAMD introduces synchrotron scientists to near-field optical microscopy and vice-versa, improving the overall depth of research training for both parties. Acquisition of the microscope also augments four upper-undergraduate and graduate-level courses in science and engineering as well as NSF sponsored Research Experience for Undergraduate sites at LSU.Nanoscale chemical processes in solid-state materials occur on time scales of attoseconds to nanoseconds with spatial dimensions below 100 nm. To better understand functional nanoscale materials, scientists must be able to measure and observe their materials properties and dynamic phenomena on their respective space and time scales. The awarded multimodal near-field optical microscope meets these needs by correlating scan probe microscopy with a suite of synergistic optical spectroscopy techniques, beating the diffraction limit, and allowing researchers to uncover the steady-state and dynamic properties of complex nanoscale materials with 10 nm spatial resolution and femtosecond time resolution. The multimodal microscope provides scientists correlated near-field spectroscopy with the following suite of experimental techniques: 1) atomic force microscopy, 2) Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and mapping with 10 nm spatial resolution, 3) Raman and tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, 4) amplitude and phase-resolved near-field imaging, 5) near-field pump-probe spectroscopy and 6) fluorescence lifetime imaging. The interconnectivity of the research team and users makes this multimodal near-field microscope a central unifying instrument at LSU, allowing for the development of new materials, and observation and engineering of novel phenomena, to explore applications in the fields of quantum computing, energy, optoelectronics, and nanomedicine.This award is jointly funded by the Division of Materials Research (DMR) and Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBET).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.