Award Abstract #0114210
Acquisition of a Multi-Probe Scanning Tunneling Microscope with SEM for Student Training in Research

NSF Org:	DMR Division of Materials Research
Initial Amendment Date:	August 22, 2001
Latest Amendment Date:	September 24, 2002
Award Number:	0114210
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	Guebre X. Tessema DMR Division of Materials Research MPS Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences
Start Date:	September 1, 2001
Expires:	August 31, 2003 (Estimated)
Awarded Amount to Date:	$400000
Investigator(s):	Ellen Williams edw@physics.umd.edu (Principal Investigator) Christopher Lobb (Co-Principal Investigator) Igor Lyubinetsky (Co-Principal Investigator) Michael Fuhrer (Co-Principal Investigator)
Sponsor:	University of Maryland College Park 3112 LEE BLDG COLLEGE PARK, MD 20742 301/405-6269
NSF Program(s):	MPS DMR INSTRUMENTATION, MATERIALS RSCH SCI & ENG CENT, MAJOR RESEARCH INSTRUMENTATION
Field Application(s):	0106000 Materials Research
Program Reference Code(s):	AMPP, 9161, 1682
Program Element Code(s):	1750, 1735, 1189

ABSTRACT

With this award from the Instrumentation for Materials Research program and the Major Research Instrumentation program, the University of Maryland will be able to acquire a combined scanning probe/scanning electron microscope. The instrument will be used to address critical issues of nano-electronics due to the variability of nano-device electronic properties with structure. This issue is critical, for instance, in assessing how or whether electrical contacts to nano-devices, structural defects in the devices, or even thermal fluctuations will limit nano-device performance and reproducibility. It is also key to developing applications of nano-structures that derive from their intrinsic properties: i.e. where strong variations of device properties with structure and/or local environment are a natural characteristic, these properties may be exploited as response mechanisms. Techniques to image the atomic structure of nanostructures while simultaneously measuring electronic transport properties will be developed. These experiments will establish the correlations between structure and the electronic properties of nanodevices, by probing the effects of dynamic changes in structure (driven by temperature, electric field, current and chemical potential) on the electrical transport properties of the nanodevices. The relationship between structure and the electrical response of nanostructures will also be investigated theoretically. The new instrument, a combined scanning probe/scanning electron microscope will also be used for graduate student training in the research areas described above.

Important new technological properties are expected to occur in materials structures as their size approaches the nanoscale. Location of such small structures to allow the direct measurement of their properties is a serious technical challenge, as is the measurement itself. This award from the Instrumentation for Materials Research program and the Major Research Instrumentation program will help the University of Maryland with the purchase of an instrument that combines two microscopes and a fine positioning stage. One microscope will be used to locate small structures, and the scanning stage will be used to move the small structures into the measurement range of the second microscope. The second microscope will be an ultra-high resolution microscope with the capability of imaging the positions of individual atoms. Experiments will be performed in which the effect of changes in the positions of individual atoms in small structures are correlated with the electrical properties (e.g. the ability to carry electrical current) of the small structures. The new instrument will also be used for graduate student training in the research areas described above.

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