MRI: Development of an Optical Super-resolution Instrument for Measuring Concentration Profiles and Diffusion Dynamics in Thin Films

这是一个项目，开发一种仪器，使新的发现有关材料界面。在固体和液体之间的界面上发生了大量科学和技术上重要的过程。例如，一种材料与另一种材料的粘附、医院表面的清洁和消毒、电池的充电以及油的回收都是在固体和液体之间的界面处发生的过程。该项目将开发一种新型的显微镜，它将以比以前更快的速度更详细地揭示这些界面的微观细节。显微镜将使观察结构变化的速度达到百万分之一秒。 需要如此高的速度来帮助研究人员理解和工程师改进工业和医疗过程，以提高国家的生产力和福祉。该项目的一个组成部分将是培训未来的科学家和工程师。该项目将在以下领域提供培训：（1）女高中生;（2）本科生;（3）攻读博士学位的学生。程序.这样的学生继续提供劳动力，这是受过训练的高科技行业的工作，以及未来一代的研究人员。在这个项目中开发的仪器将实施RESOLFT（可逆饱和光学荧光跃迁）光学超分辨率显微镜技术，适用于研究固液界面处荧光标记物质的分布和动力学。具体而言，该仪器将通过聚焦在界面处的两个反向传播光束的干涉来优化最高可能的轴向分辨率，并利用基态耗尽（GSD）模态。它将使轴向分辨率高达10 nm，同时研究低至0.25微秒的过程的时间演变，同时保持标准共聚焦显微镜的横向分辨率。高分辨率分析和快速时间分辨率的结合使该仪器能够满足材料科学、表面科学、电化学、聚合物科学和邻近领域的一系列未满足的表征需求。可以用该仪器研究的系统的示例包括聚合物和离子的空间分布，这对于抗微生物性能至关重要，生物分子和界面之间的相互作用，例如聚合物与细胞膜，表面上纳米颗粒自组装的动力学，必须理解其利用自组装用于实际应用，以及电极附近离子传输的动力学，该奖项反映了NSF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。

This is a project to develop an instrument that will enable new discoveries about material interfaces. A vast range of scientifically and technologically important processes occur at interfaces between solids and liquids. For example, the adhesion of one material to another, the cleaning and disinfection of hospital surfaces, the charging of batteries, and the recovery of oil are all processes that occur at interfaces between solids and liquids. The project will develop a new type of microscopy that will reveal the microscopic details of these interfaces in greater detail and at much greater speed than previously obtainable. The microscope will make it possible to observe changes in structure as quickly as one-millionth of a second. Such high speeds are required to help researchers understand and engineers improve industrial and medical processes that increase the nation’s productivity and well-being. An integral part of the project will be to train future generations of scientists and engineers. The project will provide training in the following areas (1) female high school students, (2) undergraduate students, and (3) students studying to complete Ph.D. programs. Such students go on to provide the workforce that is trained for work in high-tech industries as well as the future generation of researchers. The instrument developed in this project will implement a RESOLFT (Reversible Saturable Optical Fluorescence Transitions) optical super-resolution microscopy technique adapted to study the distribution and dynamics of fluorescently labelled species at solid–liquid interfaces. Specifically, the instrument will be optimized for the highest possible axial resolution through the interference of two counterpropagating beams focused at the interface, and make use of the Ground State Depletion (GSD) modality. It will enable axial resolution as high as 10 nm while studying time-evolution of processes down to 0.25 microseconds, all while maintaining lateral resolution of a standard confocal microscope. The combination of high-resolution profiling and fast time resolution allows the instrument to address a range of unmet characterization needs in materials science, surface science, electrochemistry, polymer science, and adjacent fields. Examples of systems that could be studied with the instrument include spatial distribution of polymers and ions, which is crucial for antimicrobial performance, interactions between biomolecules and interfaces, such as polymers with cell membranes, the dynamics of nanoparticle self-assembly on surfaces, which must be understood to harness self-assembly for practical applications, and dynamics of ion transport near electrodes, which is of great interest in batteries and other electrochemical systems.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.