This project, supported in the Analytical and Surface Chemistry Program, is directed towards the development and implementation of a new surface analysis method that combines scanning tunneling microscopy with orbital mediated tunneling spectroscopy. Professor Hipps and his students in the Department of Chemistry at Washington State University will work to extend the capabilities of this technique. This method allows the chemical characterization of nanometer sized features on conducting substrates. Applications of this methodology in the fields of electronic device fabrication, catalysis, molecular electronics, and surface science are likely. Following completion of the instrument development, investigation of the interaction of phthalocyanine molecules with graphite substrates will be carried out to fully test the ideas underlying the method developed here.
The ability to chemically identify nanometer sized features on surfaces is crucial to developing an understanding of a number of technologically important processes such as heterogeneous catalysis and electronic device fabrication. This research project combines the well tested method of scanning tunneling microscopy with a newly developed method known as orbital mediated tunneling spectroscopy to make an instrument that can provide this sort of information. The availability of such a method should have widespread impact in a range of surface related technologies.
