Materials on the edge: nanoscale understanding and control of interfacial and interaction-driven electronic properties of materials

边缘材料：对材料界面和相互作用驱动的电子特性的纳米级理解和控制

• 批准号: RGPIN-2018-04271
• 负责人: Burke, Sarah
• 金额: $ 2.99万
• 依托单位: University of British Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=688299
• 关键词: Materials; edge; nanoscale; understanding; control

Today's technologies largely rely on the materials of the past 50-100 years. As we seek to solve human challenges and propel futuristic technologies, new materials and structures will be required to underpin these applications. Many of these will fall into the category of “quantum materials”, where properties differ substantially from the metals, semiconductors and insulators we rely on now, opening up many possibilities for novel applications. Still more opportunities arise from combining multiple materials in new ways. However, development of these materials and structures requires increasingly detailed understanding of their electronic states, arising from their atomic-scale structure, which dictate electronic and optical properties, reactivity, and more. Many of the most exciting emerging materials are those that are, in a variety of ways, “on the edge”: materials on the cusp of electronic phase transitions, at the edge of chemical stability, and interfaces between materials where electronic properties can vastly differ from the bulk and there is the greatest potential to engineer electronic landscapes. Just a few examples of these include molecules that form photoactive acceptor-donor interfaces for organic photovoltaic devices, adsorbed metal-organic complexes for energy and catalysis applications, atomically engineered graphene, and interfaces between materials with unusual electronic states such as topological materials and superconductors. In each of these cases, control over the structure and local environment is essential as small perturbations in structure (e.g. defects or structural disorder) can have a dramatic influence on the resulting properties we hope to use.******Investigation of these emerging materials requires tools that can connect the local electronic structure to the atomic and molecular structure, especially where defects and interfaces dominate resulting properties. Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) techniques provide both local structural and electronic information on the atomic scale. Using pixel-by-pixel tunnelling spectroscopy and electrostatic force spectroscopy alongside imaging methods that reveal the atomic structure of materials we will correlate local structural information with electronic states at these key surfaces and interfaces to understand how structure drives important properties. To expand the already vast toolbox of SPM techniques, we are developing combined optical-SPM methods, undertaking complementary measurements to investigate the dynamics of electronic states at interfaces, and building new instruments that will bridge to complementary techniques such as angle resolved photoemission and transport measurements. These bridging experiments will provide much-needed connection of the atomic-scale understanding provided by SPM to the resulting macro-scale properties most applications are built upon.

当今的技术在很大程度上取决于过去50 - 100年的材料。当我们寻求解决人类挑战并推动未来技术时，将需要新的材料和结构来支撑这些应用。其中许多将属于“量子材料”类别，在该类别中，该属性与我们现在所依赖的金属，半导体和绝缘子有很大不同，为新型应用开辟了许多可能性。通过新方式组合多种材料，带来了更多的机会。但是，这些材料和结构的开发需要越来越详细地了解其电子状态，这是由于它们的原子尺度结构而产生的，这些结构决定了电子和光学特性，反应性等。许多最令人兴奋的新兴材料是以多种方式“在边缘”的：电子相换的材料，在化学稳定性的边缘，仅几个示例的示例包括形成光活性受体 - donor界面的分子，用于有机光伏设备，适用于有机的金属和态度，并构图，并构图，并构图，并构图，并构图，并构成了态度，并构成了态度，并构成了态度，并构成了态度，并构成了孔，并构成了孔，并构成了孔，孔 - 官方效应，并构建具有异常电子状态（例如拓扑材料和超导体）的材料之间的界面。在每种情况下，对结构和本地环境的控制是必不可少的，因为在结构中的小扰动（例如缺陷或结构性障碍）可能会对我们希望使用的产生属性产生巨大影响。******对这些新兴材料进行的研究需要可以将局部电子结构连接到原子和分子结构，尤其是在原子和互动的地方，并构成所产生的属性，并需要将局部电子结构连接起来。扫描问题显微镜（SPM）技术提供了有关原子量表的局部结构和电子信息。使用像素的像素隧穿光谱和静电力光谱以及揭示材料原子结构的成像方法的静电力光谱，我们将将局部结构信息与这些关键表面和接口处的电子状态相关联，以了解结构如何驱动重要特性。为了扩展已经庞大的SPM技术工具箱，我们正在开发合并的光学SPM方法，进行互补测量以研究接口处的电子状态的动力学，并构建将桥梁以完成完整技术（例如角度分辨光光发射和运输测量）的新工具。这些桥梁实验将提供SPM提供的原子尺度理解与所得宏观尺度属性的急需联系。