Acquisition of Variable-Temperature Scanning Probe Microscope for Nanostructured Materials Research and Education

Harvard University, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

With this award from the Instrumentation for Materials Research Program, the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University will acquire a Variable-Temperature Scanning Probe Microscope bolt-on module from Omicron Instruments. This instrument will facilitate research in a number of areas, including a) the phase transitions of individual nanocrystals, b) the electron transport through individual molecules, nanocrystals and their arrays and c) the electron transport through individual carbon nanotubes and nanorods. The VT-SPM system will serve as a major piece of infrastructure for building present and future efforts in investigating nanostructures and materials at Harvard University and it will serve as a locus for new collaborative efforts to fabricate and manipulate nanometer-scale materials and to investigate their physical and chemical properties in unprecedented detail. A scanning probe microscope (SPM) coupled with a variable-temperature stage allows atomic-resolution imaging of both conductive and nonconductive surfaces as well as a variety of chemically derived nanostructures at controlled sample temperature. This ability of SPM to image and manipulate nanometer-scale structures as a function of temperature opens up many new research fronts in chemistry, physics and related interdisciplinary areas of science since it allows physical and chemical investigations of nanometer-sized materials as a function of the most important thermodynamic variable, temperature. Using the SPM will expose students to a central tool for surface science, materials science and the emerging field of nanoscience. *** With this award from the Instrumentation for Materials Research Program, the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University will acquire a Variable-Temperature Scanning Probe Microscope bolt-on module from Omicron Instruments. This instrument will facilitate research in a number of areas, including a) the phase transitions of individual nanocrystals, b) the electron transport through individual molecules, nanocrystals and their arrays and c) the electron transport through individual carbon nanotubes and nanorods. The VT-SPM system will serve as a major piece of infrastructure for building present and future efforts in investigating nanostructures and materials at Harvard University and it will serve as a locus for new collaborative efforts to fabricate and manipulate nanometer-scale materials and to investigate their physical and chemical properties in unprecedented detail. Using the SPM will expose students to a central tool for surface science, materials science and the emerging field of nanoscience. %%%