Projects
The accurate identification and quantitation of unknown species at the atto to zeptomole (10-18 to 10-21) level presents formidable challenges. Even more dramatic is their spatiotemporal localization in high performance materials or biological specimens. Our goal is to advance the performance of "chemical vision" to match that of physical microscopy.
Progress towards the limits of chemical analysis and mapping depends on:
- advancing our understanding of the chemistry and physics that generate the signals we measure;
- developing the technology for the highly sensitive yet selective detection of faint, fast signals;
- inventing new procedures for nanoanalysis.
Current work funded by the National Science Foundation and the Robert A. Welch Foundation deals with the three themes listed below:
Fundamentals of
massive cluster-solid interactions
Studies in
progress deal with elucidating mechanisms of surface ionization, measurement
od secondary ion (SI) yields, of multiple SI emission, probability
distributions of SI emissions, volume of SI emission, characteristics of SI
emission.
Methodology and
instrument development
Efforts focus on the localization of projectile impacts and the efficient detection/identification
of ejecta.
Extreme analysis
The objective is to validate secondary ion mass spectrometry using massive
clusters as projectiles for the detection of attomol to zeptomole amounts of
analyte and for the characterization of nanoenvironments on surfaces, in
membranes and in biological specimens.