Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

As we strive to create ever smaller devices, packed with increasing information, we require methods to characterize these devices on their relevant nanoscale dimensions. We are able to fabricate devices with atomic-scale features that are key to their performance. However, this also implies that atomic-scale defects in these materials can also destroy performance. Examples of such devices in our research programs include nanowires for optoelectronics and quantum information applications, two-dimensional semiconductors for nanoelectronics and biosensing, and new magnetic memory storage devices. To rationally design such devices requires the ability to correlate measurements of surface properties such as topography, roughness, electric potential and magnetic domain structure with device performance. Understanding these relationships allows for the targeted improvement of materials design and synthesis. Concurrently with our ever-finer ability to engineer new devices, we are obtaining ever-finer resolution into the properties of molecules that enable and support life. The building blocks of our connective tissues and supporting extracellular matrix around our cells are rich in proteins like collagen, the predominant structural protein in our bodies. Besides providing mechanical support to cells, collagen may serve as an information-transducing element, in which environmental changes trigger conformational changes in collagen, which in turn affect binding and recognition by downstream signalling partners. By attaining molecular-scale resolution into collagen's structure, we can unlock this putative code and map the structural changes elicited by environmental stresses, chemical hallmarks of aging, and mutations in collagen's composition arising from disease. The proposed instrumentation - a scanning probe microscope (SPM) with accessories - enables the nanoscale visualization and characterization of this range of samples, from soft molecular building blocks of life to hard inorganic engineered device structures. The SPM will be a shared resource within the Department of Physics at Simon Fraser University, supported by a departmental technician, and open to users in a wide range of research areas. Standardized training that will be provided to new students will enable them to rapidly engage with and develop highly marketable skills using this leading-edge technology. Shared leadership in the management of the instrument will allow diverse HQP to develop skills that extend beyond the technology itself. Through outreach and recruitment initiatives, the SPM will enable engagement with a diverse group of students who can explore the wonders of the nanoscale worlds around us.