Funding is requested for a high-resolution 30 keV field-emission gun (FEG) scanning electron microscope (SEM), equipped with an electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) system and pattern generation hardware and software for nano-patterning. Apart from high-resolution surface imaging and spatially resolved chemical analysis, EBSD provides the opportunity to directly monitor local grain orientations. The proposed e-bam lithography capability allows fabrication and simultaneous characterization of novel nanostructures. With this configuration, the system is uniquely suited to the broad-based CSM materials research programs currently well established in several academic departments including Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Physics, Chemical Engineering, and Chemistry. Three examples of the extensive materials research that will be advanced by acquisition of this system include new solar materials, advanced structural steels for energy and transportation systems, and development of nanophotonic structures. Solar cell properties critically depend on the interfacial microstructures and the high-resolution SEM would provide this essential capability to evaluate microstructural development as a function of processing. Additional areas of interest involve synthesizing modulated doped electronic films, which consist of alternating stacks of oxides with an individual layer thickness on the order of 100 nm. Thermomechanical processing of sheet and plate steels offers the opportunity to modify crystallographic textures through the cross section. Assessment of microstructures with the EBSD capability, which allows direct assessment of local texture variations between grains, is critical for complete phase identification and the assessment of the effects of processing history microstructure and performance. Recent research has demonstrated novel optical properties in nanoscale metallic structures involving the interaction of photons and surface plasmons. This research leads to the development of nanophotonic structures, which will potentially allow the integration of photonic and electronic functionality on a single chip. Key to developing plasmonic structures is access to high resolution, flexible, nanoscale lithography to allow resonator structures, gratings, and nanoparticle arrays to be routinely fabricated. Acquisition of a state-of the-art scanning electron microscope system will enable the entire CSM research community, students (female/minorities) and local industrial partners to work on the forefront of newly developed materials that are critical to current and future needs of our society.
Funding is requested for a high-resolution scanning electron microscope to do detailed patterning of materials. This system is critical for several ongoing and developing new research programs at the Colorado School of Mines, a university uniquely positioned to support the growing materials oriented research programs in the Denver and Rocky Mountain areas. The system will be the central focus of a university facility to support the broad-based materials research on campus. Our research in Materials Science and Engineering has a long history in traditional fields such as extractive metallurgy, steel processing, and ceramics and has now expanded to include a variety of advanced materials. The expanded focus on novel materials research is evident from the success of several materials oriented centers including the Advanced Steel Processing and Products Research Center, the Colorado Center for Advanced Ceramics, the Advanced Coatings and Surface Engineering Laboratory, the Center for Solar and Electronic Materials, and the Center for Fuel Cell Research. Through these centers, we are actively involved in research on a wide variety of newly developed materials including non-oxide ceramics, nanostructured materials, advanced metallic alloys, thin film coatings, fuel cell materials, photovoltaics, photonic materials, polymers, biomaterials (prosthetic implants) and advanced steels. The proposed instrument allows very detailed materials characterization, which will enable our students, faculty, and industrial partners to actively work on the forefront of advanced materials and nanostructures that are essential to current and future needs of our society; ranging from environmental issues, telecommunication and energy conservation to life sciences.
