Collaborative Research: Equipment: Acquisition of a Confocal Micro-Raman Spectroscopy System at the University of Massachusetts and Amherst College

该合同将支持马萨诸塞大学、阿默斯特学院和五所学院社区的共聚焦拉曼光谱系统的研究和教学。拉曼光谱学涉及测量激光聚焦在矿物或流体目标样品上时产生的轻微能量转移。这些能量变化的幅度和强度包含了目标样品的特性、组成或畸变的信息。新的拉曼系统——将被安置在马萨诸塞大学——将被教师、学生和研究人员用来识别和表征岩石中的矿物和流体。特别令人感兴趣的是被困在较大矿物颗粒中的极小的矿物和流体“气泡”。这些微小的矿物和流体包裹体很难或不可能被其他技术识别，可以用来限制宿主岩石的起源和演化，从而为大规模的地球过程提供见解。拉曼系统将帮助马萨诸塞大学和阿默斯特学院的研究人员调查：山带的演变，关键矿床的起源，火山下岩浆是如何产生的，地壳中岩浆储存在哪里，以及新技术的发展，以确定岩石的年代。新系统也将被纳入本科和研究生课程，为学生提供动手研究和数据分析的经验。拉曼系统也将作为我们外展活动的一个组成部分，允许教师和学生为K-12学生和周围社区的其他成员举行展示矿物鉴定和材料特性的演示。此次获得拉曼系统的动机是三个直接的研究途径和一个开发项目：(1)鉴定变质卟啉母细胞中的矿物包裹体和包裹体组合；(2)利用弹性热气压计表征变质压力（和温度）；(3)火成岩熔体包裹体CO2定量分析；(4)锆石温度表α损伤的发展。前三个项目将提供关键数据，并为活跃的（资助的）研究项目开辟新的研究途径。该开发项目可能提供一种新的高温温度计，以补充基于40Ar/39Ar的系统。拉曼系统还将用于五学院社区的教师和学生的广泛研究项目。新系统将提供有效的矿物识别小颗粒/斑点尺寸（约1微米）。它可以用来识别矿物包裹体，即使这些包裹体没有暴露在宿主矿物的表面。这是为数不多的鉴定和定量熔体包裹体蒸气泡中挥发性物质（原位）的技术之一。近年来，拉曼光谱已被用于量化矿物晶格中的应力状态，这使得拉曼大气测量的应用迅速扩大。对于上述研究应用和许多其他应用，拉曼光谱提供了其他方法无法获得的数据。新的拉曼光谱系统也将对马萨诸塞大学、阿默斯特学院和五所学院社区的教学和学生研究产生重大影响。pi将在他们的本科和研究生矿物学和岩石学课程中发展基于拉曼的学习活动。由于易于训练和使用，以及我们大量的研究样本档案，我们怀疑拉曼系统可能特别适合让本科生参与活跃的、高影响力的研究项目，作为高级论文的先驱。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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 award will support the acquisition of a confocal Raman spectroscopy system for research and teaching at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst College, and Five-college community. Raman spectroscopy involves the measurement of the slight energy shifts that result when a laser is focused on a mineral or fluid target sample. The magnitude and intensity of these energy shifts contain information about the identity, composition, or distortion of the target sample. The new Raman System – which will be housed at the University of Massachusetts - will be used by faculty, students, and researchers to identify and characterize minerals and fluids in rocks. Of particular interest are extremely small minerals and fluid “bubbles” that have been trapped in larger mineral grains. These tiny mineral and fluid inclusions can be difficult or impossible to identify by other techniques, and can be used to constrain the origin and evolution of the host rocks, in turn providing insight into large-scale Earth processes. The Raman system will aid researchers at University of Massachusetts and Amherst College in investigating: the evolution of mountain belts, the origins of critical mineral deposits, how magma is generated under volcanoes and where in the crust this magma is stored, and the development of new techniques to date rocks. The new system will also be incorporated into undergraduate and graduate classes, providing students with hands-on research and data-analysis experience. The Raman system will also serve as a component of our outreach activities, allowing faculty and students to hold demonstrations that showcase mineral identification and material characterization for K-12 students and other members of the surrounding communities. This acquisition of the Raman System is motivated by three immediate research avenues and one development project: (1) identification of mineral inclusions and inclusion assemblages in metamorphic porphyroblasts; (2) characterization of metamorphic pressures (and temperatures) using elastic thermobarometry; (3) quantification of CO2 in igneous melt inclusions; and (4) development of alpha-damage in zircon thermochronometer. The first three projects will contribute critical data and open new research avenues for active (funded) research projects. The development project may provide a new high-temperature thermochronometer to complement 40Ar/39Ar based systems. The Raman system will also be available for a wide range of research projects from faculty and students in the Five-College community. The new system will provide efficient mineral identification down to small grain/spot sizes (ca. 1 micrometer). It can be used to identify mineral inclusions even when such inclusions are not exposed at the surface of the host mineral. It is one of the few techniques for identification and quantification of volatile species (in-situ) in vapor bubbles within melt inclusions. Recently, Raman spectroscopy has been used to quantify the stress state in mineral lattices, which has given rise to rapidly expanding Raman barometry applications. For the research applications (above) and for many others, Raman spectroscopy provides data that cannot be obtained by other means. The new Raman spectroscopy system will also have a significant impact on teaching and student research at UMass, Amherst College, and in the Five College community. The PIs will develop Raman-based learning activities into their undergraduate and graduate Mineralogy and Petrology courses. Because of the ease of training and use, and our large archive of research samples, we suspect the Raman system may be particularly appropriate for involving undergraduate students in active, high-impact research projects as a precursor to senior theses.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.