MRI: Development of a High-Pressure Laser Floating Zone Furnace

MRI：高压激光浮区炉的开发

• 批准号: 2216387
• 负责人: Pengcheng Dai
• 金额: $ 54.78万
• 依托单位: William Marsh Rice University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-01 至 2025-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2216387&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: MRI; Development; Pressure; Laser; Floating

Advances in information technology, energy, and many other fields rely upon the development and characterization of materials with desirable mechanical, electrical, magnetic, and thermal properties. Investigators who first synthesize high-quality, bulk single crystals of novel materials are in an optimal position to conduct definitive studies of their fundamental properties. Moreover, these investigators are also well positioned to facilitate further development of these materials toward applications in advanced technologies. This project develops a high-pressure laser floating zone furnace, not commercially available, capable of growing single crystals of novel materials that cannot be grown any other way. The high-pressure laser floating zone furnace will be a part of Rice’s Shared Equipment Authority and therefore have a broad user base from Rice University and the extended research community in and around Houston, Texas. In addition to training undergraduate and graduate students in the art of growing single crystals using the furnace, the successful execution of this project will open areas of research currently not possible for faculty and students. These activities will broaden the avenues of research in solid-state science and will provide new opportunities for discoveries of novel phenomena in single crystals of quantum materials.Conventional laser floating zone furnaces are powerful tools used to grow high-quality single crystals of oxides, intermetallics, carbides, and silicides, as long as the melting temperature is below ~2,800°C, but the growth chamber is limited up to 300 bar gas pressure. Growing single crystals of more complex materials, however, requires special capabilities, particularly the use of high pressure in the growth chamber. This is because the boiling point of a liquid is the temperature at which its vapor pressure is equal to the pressure of the gas around it. Increasing the gas pressure to 1000 bar inside the chamber will dramatically enhance the opportunities to stabilize the melt, and therefore allowing growth of single crystals not possible with conventional laser floating zone furnace. Recently, the investigator at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), developed a novel design for a high-pressure laser floating zone furnace for operational pressures up to 1000 bars of gas pressure. The objective of this project is to continue this innovation through the design and construction of a next-generation high-pressure laser floating zone furnace at Rice University; it will be the first of its kind in Texas and the southern U.S. and will represent a continued advance in high-pressure floating zone technology for advanced crystal growth. With the development of an improved high-pressure laser floating zone furnace under 1000 bars of gas pressure, the investigators will be able to obtain entire new phase parameter regimes and grow single crystals not possible with a commercial instrument. The proposed furnace will be operated and maintained by Rice University’s Shared Equipment Authority, where it will be easily accessible not only to Rice researchers but also to researchers throughout Texas and the southern U.S., thereby significantly broadening the capacity to advance research in materials synthesis.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

信息技术、能源和许多其他领域的进步依赖于具有理想机械、电、磁和热性能的材料的开发和表征，首先合成高质量、块状单晶的新型材料的研究人员处于最佳位置。此外，这些研究人员也有能力促进这些材料在先进技术中的应用，该项目开发了一种能够生长单晶的高压激光浮区炉。无法生长的新材料另一方面，高压激光浮区炉将成为莱斯大学共享设备管理局的一部分，因此除了培训本科生和研究生外，还拥有莱斯大学和德克萨斯州休斯顿及其周边地区的广泛研究社区。该项目的成功实施将为教师和学生开辟目前无法进行的研究领域，这些活动将拓宽固态科学的研究途径，并为学生提供新的机会。量子单晶新现象的发现传统的激光浮区炉是用于生长高质量氧化物、金属间化合物、碳化物和硅化物单晶的强大工具，只要熔化温度低于~2,800°C，但生长室最多限制为 300然而，生长更复杂材料的单晶需要特殊的能力，特别是在生长室中使用高压，这是因为液体的沸点是其蒸气的温度。压力等于其周围气体的压力，将腔室内部的气压增加到 1000 bar 将极大地提高稳定传统熔体的机会，因此可以实现激光浮区炉无法生长的单晶。加州大学圣塔芭芭拉分校 (UCSB) 的研究人员开发了一种新颖的高压激光浮区炉设计，其工作压力高达 1000 巴。该项目的目标是通过设计与施工莱斯大学的下一代高压激光浮区炉；这将是德克萨斯州和美国南部的第一台此类炉，并将代表先进晶体生长的高压浮区技术的持续进步。在开发出一种在 1000 巴气压下改进的高压激光浮区炉后，研究人员将能够获得全新的相参数状态并生长单晶，这是使用商用仪器无法实现的。所提议的炉将由以下人员操作和维护。莱斯大学的共享设备管理局，不仅可以方便地访问莱斯大学的研究人员，还可以反映整个德克萨斯州和美国南部的研究人员，从而显着扩大推进材料合成研究的能力。该奖项是 NSF 的法定使命，并被认为值得支持通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估。