Technical Description: This Major Research Instrumentation award supports development of a scanning probe microscope capable of following dynamic local changes in charge density, ionic motion, polarization, and molecular cooperative phenomena with ~100 nanosecond temporal resolution. The instrument will allow these transient phenomena to be measured following optical, electrical, or thermal excitation while probing the system response with nanometer-scale spatial resolution in a controlled atmosphere and at varying temperatures. The instrument will offer capabilities including: (1) the ability to measure events taking place on ~100 ns timescales by analysis of the dynamic cantilever motion following a transient excitation; (2) the ability to excite the sample with optical pulses synchronized to the cantilever motion and to detect the resulting transient electrical, thermal, and dielectric relaxation processes with high resolution using robust, commercial AFM tips, and; (3) the ability to perform high-bandwidth non-contact frequency-modulation based dielectric measurements, and compare them with contact mode dielectric spectroscopy over a wide frequency range. By permitting these dynamic measurements to be performed at high bandwidth and high spatial resolution, the instrument will allow for future materials advances by directly connecting performance with specific structural features, even in heterogeneous films as are often encountered in real technological materials and applications.
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Non-Technical Description: The investigators at the University of Washington will build, and commission a unique scanning probe microscope capable of following dynamic local changes in electronic, ionic, and molecular properties. The microscope will be able to capture changes happening faster than 100 billionths of a second in features smaller than 20 billionths of a meter (20,000 times smaller than a hair) in size. Once completed, the microscope will be made available as part of an existing shared user facility, providing researchers within and beyond the University of Washington with capabilities to study new materials for applications that advance economically and environmentally important technologies such as new solar photovoltaics for generating low cost energy, Li-ion batteries for consumer electronics and transportation applications, thermoelectric materials for waste heat recovery and thermal management, novel ferroelectrics for use in flexible electronics and sensors, and membranes for industrially and environmentally important separations. The equipment will support the ongoing training and outreach efforts of the Advanced Materials for Energy and Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institutes at the University. The program will support training of student and postdoctoral scholars in the construction and use of next generation of instrumentation, and by encouraging ties with industry will not only provide them with educational enrichment but also support future possibilities for commercialization and widespread adoption of the developed instrumentation.
