Development of a 300 mK-10 Tesla Scanning Tunneling Microscope for Nanoscience Research and Education

University Of California-Irvine, Irvine CA

Investigators

Abstract

This award from the Instrumentation for Materials Research program supports instrument development at the University of California Riverside. The ability to probe matter at low temperatures (300 mK), high magnetic fields (10 Tesla), under ultrahigh vacuum conditions (10-11 Torr), and with resolution below a tenth of a nanometer pushes back the limits of our ability to understand matter in details not hitherto possible. The development of a scanning tunneling microscope with these capabilities allows controlled imaging, manipulation, spectroscopic characterization, and chemical modification of individual atoms and molecules. In addition to the charge, the spin of the electrons can be probed at the nanoscale, enabling an understanding of nanomagnetism. The development of this microscope encompasses a wide range of experimental techniques, thus providing valuable opportunities for education and training of undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral associates. These techniques and the science made possible by the microscope will be integrated into a new course on nanoscience. It is envisioned that the microscope will serve as a centerpiece for collaborative research involving the investigation of nanoscale phenomena and bring together researchers from different disciplines. The instrument impact broad scientific research which include single molecule spectroscopy, nanocatalysis, surface and interface magnetism, nanowires, and cryogenic fluid behavior on alkali metal film. The advancement of nanotechnology depends critically on instrumentation which can be used to probe objects having nanometer dimensions. In this regard, the invention of the scanning probe microscope in 1981 by Binnig and Rohrer has played a central role in the rapid advances which have been made in the understanding of materials at the atomic and molecular scales. The desire to probe in ever greater details and to access hitherto unobservable properties of the system requires the development of new instrumentation. This award from the Instrumentation for Materials Research program supports the development of a new more powerful microscope at the University of California. The new microscope will make it possible to probe nanometer objects whose behavior can only be revealed at minus 273 degrees Celsius and at magnetic fields two hundred thousand times greater than the earth field. The development of such an instrumentation provides unique opportunities for the education and training of undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral associates in this critical field of science and technology. In addition, activities surrounding this development will be integrated into the teaching curriculum in the form of a new course on nanoscience. The unique capabilities of the proposed instrumentation will allow researchers from different disciplines to work together on nanoscale problems. Nanotechnology naturally pulls together a wide range of scientists and engineers since everything around us are made from and involve the transformation of atoms and molecules.