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NSF Grant Enhances NISP Lab's Capabilities

"This NSF funding will enable us to bring top-notch capabilities to the campus. We're all excited about the ability to both image complex structures and obtain quantitative chemical composition on the micro- and nano- scale."

Professor Robert M. Briber, Chairman, Materials Science and Engineering

The National Science Foundation will award the University of Maryland $500,000 for upgrading its electron microscopy facility.

"This award is central to our continued progress as a leader in science, engineering and nanotechnology research on structure at the molecular- and nanoscale," said Professor Gary Rubloff, Director of the Maryland NanoCenter. "The NSF award builds on major investments the campus has made in electron microscopy, providing funds to add pivotal chemical analysis capabilities to our new instrumentation. This makes our nanoscale electron microscopy competitive with the best, and available to the region through the open doors of the Maryland NanoCenter."

The grant was awarded to a team of researchers from Engineering, Physics, Chemistry and Biology at the University of Maryland, led by Professor Lourdes Salamanca-Riba from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. The funds will be used to purchase accessories for composition analysis of materials with very high spatial resolution and for characterization of biological tissues at low temperatures for two new microscopes in the Nanoscale Imaging Spectroscopy and Properties (NISP) Laboratory housed in the new Kim Engineering building. (See the related story, "New Microscopes for NISP, Keck Labs.")

The NISPLab's electron microscopy capabilities at the University of Maryland include 2 new JEOL transmission electron microscopes: a 2100 LaB6 and a 2100F field emission with energy dispersive x-ray analysis and electron energy loss spectroscopy; and a JEOL SuperProbe 840 for scanning electron microscopy with wavelength dispersive x-ray spectroscopy for chemical analysis.

To learn more, visit the NISPLab at http://www.nisplab.umd.edu/ and the Maryland NanoCenter at http://www.nanocenter.umd.edu/.

See Research Enabled with This New Microscopy Facility:

The Role of Multiphase Formation on the Properties of BiFeO3 Films »
Artificial Spin Ice »
Nanoscale Thermometry: A New Imaging Technique »

Related Stories:
"NSF Funds Microscopy Facility Upgrades"»
"Cumings Group Invents New Microscopy Technique" »
"Now That's Cool" »
"NISPLab Welcomes UMD VP for Research" »

University Press Release:
Million Dollars in Grants Will Add to U of Md Nanotech, NMR Research

Published August 29, 2006