Imaging Ellipsometer for Soft Materials at Surfaces and Interfaces

我们研究小组的主要焦点是表面和界面的软材料。软质材料的物理性质不同于硬质物质，因为较弱的分子间键导致对外部应力的大响应。这些材料的一个令人惊讶的方面是，薄膜或涂层不一定表现出与块状材料相同的性能。为了进一步了解这些系统，我们需要一个成像椭偏仪（IE）。IE是一种多功能光学工具，可以测量与薄膜厚度有关的特性。就像光学显微镜获得物体的图像一样，IE能够获得与薄膜厚度相对应的图像。除了在样品的日常表征中使用该仪器外，我们还打算将其用作回答一些基本问题的主要工具：为什么薄膜性质与体不同？在什么厚度的薄膜上，这些异常开始变得重要？小长度尺度上的复杂形态是如何发展的，我们能从中学到什么基本性质？解决这些问题对于纳米级器件的发展至关重要，并且可能导致我们对小长度尺度软材料的理解取得重大进展。

The main focus of our research group is soft-materials at surfaces and interfaces. The physics of soft materials is distinct from hard matter as the weaker intermolecular bonds result in a large response to external stresses. One surprising aspect of these materials is that thin films or coatings do not necessarily exhibit the same properties as bulk materials. In order to further our understanding of these systems we request an imaging ellipsometer (IE). The IE is a versatile optical tool which can measure properties which can be related to the thickness of a film. Much as an optical microscope obtains an image of an object, the IE is capable of obtaining an image which corresponds to the thickness of a film. Besides the use of this instrument in the day-to-day characterisation of our samples, we intend to use it as the primary tool to answer some fundamental questions: Why do thin film properties differ from the bulk? At what film thickness do these anomalies start to become important? How do complex morphologies on small length scales develop and what fundamental properties can we learn from this? Addressing these issues is crucial to the development of nanoscale devices and is likely to result in major advances in our understanding of soft materials at small length-scales.