This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is in the general area of Analytical and Surface Chemistry and in the subfield of surface spectroscopy. This research should determine the feasibility of developing an inelastic tunneling spectrometer capable of measuring the vibrational spectrum of adsorbed species on surfaces in the room temperature regime. The device features inelastic tunneling and field emission of electrons across a gas or vacuum gap. The novel innovation in this device is the use of reversed biased semiconductor electrodes. Electrons generated in an inversion layer on p-Si have a very narrow distribution of energies which leads to an electron beam probe with a bandwidth as low as 2.8 meV at room temperature, depending on doping density. The narrow bandwidth allows inelastic spectra to be determined at room temperature. Previously liquid helium temperatures (4.2 deg K) were required to obtain good resolution. The new device should have all the beneficial properties of low temperature inelastic tunneling spectroscopy including very wide spectral range and fractional monolayer sensitivity. Additional attributes of the new device will be operation at room temperature and use of substrates other than alumina. %%% The spectral tool whose feasibility is being evaluated in this Phase I research should enable the vibrational spectroscopic characterization of many adsorbed molecules which play critical roles in numerous technologically and commercially important processes.
