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

这项奖励将支持马萨诸塞大学、阿默斯特学院和五所大学社区购买用于研究和教学的共焦拉曼光谱系统。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移动。这些能量转移的大小和强度包含有关目标样品的身份、组成或失真的信息。新的拉曼系统将安装在马萨诸塞大学，教职员工、学生和研究人员将使用该系统来识别和表征岩石中的矿物和流体。特别令人感兴趣的是极小的矿物和困在较大矿物颗粒中的流体“气泡”。这些微小的矿物和流体包裹体可能很难或不可能通过其他技术识别，可以用来限制寄主岩石的起源和演化，进而提供对地球大规模过程的洞察。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：山带的演化，关键矿藏的起源，火山下岩浆是如何产生的，岩浆在地壳中的存储位置，以及新技术的发展来确定岩石的年代。新系统还将被纳入本科生和研究生的课堂，为学生提供实践研究和数据分析体验。拉曼系统也将作为我们外展活动的一部分，允许教职员工和学生举行演示，向K-12学生和周围社区的其他成员展示矿物识别和材料表征。拉曼系统的获得是由三个直接的研究途径和一个开发项目推动的：(1)识别变质斑岩中的矿物包裹体和包裹体组合；(2)使用弹性温压计表征变质压力(和温度)；(3)定量火成岩熔体包裹体中的二氧化碳；以及(4)发展锆石温度计时中的阿尔法损伤。前三个项目将提供关键数据，并为积极的(资助的)研究项目开辟新的研究途径。该开发项目可能会提供一种新的高温热时计，以补充40Ar/39Ar系统。拉曼系统还将用于五所学院社区的教职员工和学生的广泛研究项目。新系统将提供有效的矿物识别，小到颗粒/斑点尺寸(约1微米)。它可以用来识别矿物包裹体，即使这样的包裹体没有暴露在宿主矿物的表面。这是为数不多的识别和量化熔体包裹体内气泡中挥发性物质(原位)的技术之一。近年来，拉曼光谱被用来量化矿物晶格中的应力状态，这使得拉曼气压测量的应用迅速扩大。对于研究应用(如上)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。新的拉曼光谱系统还将对马萨诸塞州大学、阿默斯特学院和五学院社区的教学和学生研究产生重大影响。PIS将在其本科生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。由于易于培训和使用，以及我们的大量研究样本，我们怀疑拉曼系统可能特别适合让本科生参与积极的、高影响的研究项目，作为高级论文的先驱。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.