Integrated probe station for electrical conductivity measurements from cryogenic temperatures to room temperature

NSERC-RTI申请资金用于在从低温（10K）到环境条件的不同温度下进行四点电导率测量的新探针站。虽然西部大学是一个充满活力的材料科学社区的所在地，但它在温度领域的电气测量方面装备严重不足。目前在西方没有研究工具，适合从低温到室温的电测量，甚至在这个温度区间的一小部分。这种类型的设备只能在不少于100公里的其他大学使用。实际上，由于一些原因，包括不能运输的样品的敏感性和旅行费用，使用它们的设备往往是不可行的。据我们所知，我们是加拿大为数不多的缺乏这种广泛使用设备的研究型大学之一。这一缺陷目前正在危及几个研究计划，我们迫切需要目前无法获得的基础设施。除了作为一种通用仪器，将满足西安大西大学庞大研究团体的关键需求外，拟议的探针站还特别适合共同申请者团队的特定测量，例如太阳能电池内部光转换效率和低温下的电发光测量。不同温度下的电导率测量对于表征金属、半导体和绝缘体等大类材料的电子结构，以及深入了解其制造参数、电传输特性和特定材料预期发挥的其他功能之间的关系至关重要。目前，西部大学有超过50个nserc资助的研究团队正在积极开发和研究无机和有机半导体材料、生物材料、光子材料和能源设备应用材料。他们包括三个西方学院（科学，工程，以及舒利希医学和牙科学院），他们聚集在先进材料和生物材料研究中心（CAMBR，见：http://www.uwo.ca/cambr）。据估计，目前有超过500名HQPs正在接受西方材料科学研究界的CAMBR培训，其中在过去6年中培训了1200多名HQPs。这些hqp中最多的是实验学家，对他们来说，通用材料科学实验的培训，包括在不同温度下的电测量，对于补充他们特定研究项目提供的专业知识至关重要。西方材料科学研究界最活跃的11个团体正计划广泛使用该探测站，并且是该提议的一部分。

NSERC-RTI funds are requested for a new probe station for four-point electrical conductivity measurements at varying temperature, from cryogenic (10K) to ambient conditions. Although Western is home of such a vibrant materials science community, it is dramatically underequipped for electrical measurements in the temperature domain. There is currently no research tool at Western that is suitable to electrical measurements from cryogenic to room temperature, or even in small portions of this temperature interval. Equipment of this type is only available in other universities at no less than 100 km. Access to their equipment is often not viable in practice, for a number of reasons including delicateness of samples that are not transportable, and travel costs. To the best of our knowledge, we are one of the few research-intensive universities in Canada lacking this type of broad-use equipment. This deficiency is currently jeopardizing several research plans, and we are in urgent need of an infrastructure that is currently unavailable. In addition of being a general-purpose instrument that will satisfy a critical need from a vast research community at The University of Western Ontario, the proposed probe station is uniquely suited for specific measurements by the team of coapplicants, for instance solar cell internal photoconversion efficiency and electroluminescence measurements at low temperature. Electrical conductivity measurements at varying temperature are essential to characterize the electronic structure of a large class of materials -- metals, semiconductors and insulators, and to gain insight into the relationships between their fabrication parameters, electrical transport properties, and other functions that specific materials are expected to play. Currently, there are more than 50 NSERC-funded research teams at Western that are active in developing and investigating inorganic and organic semiconducting materials, biomaterials, photonic materials, and materials for energy device applications. They encompass three Western faculties (Science, Engineering, as well as the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry) and they are clustered in the Centre for Advanced Materials and Biomaterials Research (CAMBR, see: http://www.uwo.ca/cambr). It is estimated that a total of more than 500 HQPs are currently being trained in CAMBR by the Western materials science research community, with more than 1,200 HQPs trained over the last 6 years. The largest number of these HQPs are experimentalists, for which training in general-purpose materials science experiments, including electrical measurements at varying temperature, is vital to complement specialized knowledge offered by their particular research projects. Eleven of the most active groups of the Western materials science research community are planning to extensively use the probe station, and are part of this proposal.