Within the project a new SPM Platform will be setup in the ALBA premises. It will host five different instruments, each one with specific, complementary capabilities. Two microscopes will provide state-of-art multi-technique AFM (KPFM, MFM, EFM, LFM, PFM, SCM, Phase contrast, C-AFM, ECM) capability, whereas other two will add optical nanospectroscopies such as tip-enhanced electro and photo luminescence (STML/TEPL) or Raman (TERS) to the toolkit. The fifth equipment is a commercial STM/nc-AFM(UHV)@RT from SPECS using a Nanonis electronics that is working since 2011 at the ALBA installations. This instrument has a load-lock for fast samples entry and is compatible with ALBA suitcases for transfer of samples under UHV.
In April 2024, the two new multi-technique AFMs have been delivered. Since the new laboratory at ALBA, designed to host the whole SPM platform, these systems are temporarily installed at the ICMAB-CSIC. The ICMAB team, that includes personnel enrolled within InCAEM, has been in charge of the acquisition and coordinates the installation and commissioning of these equipment. In particular, these multipurpose SPMs are two state-of-the-art FX40 Atomic Force Microscopes from Park Systems. The FX40 AFMs are quite new in the market, with the latest advances in optimization for automatic sensor change and laser alignment. They will permit measuring very diverse samples and materials for applications in fields as varied as biomedicine, energy, electronics, etc. Both AFMs have the same basic layout and are equipped with a series of interchangeable accessories. However, in order to cover a wider range of applications and provide a higher output, each instrument will be initially designed for a different set of measuring modes and environments. While one will operate mainly in ambient conditions, the other one will operate inside a glovebox. This last requirement is quite unique worldwide and, allowing high control of environment and humidity, opens new and challenging opportunities in the study of sensitive and unstable material. It will be thus possible to characterize not only the morphology and mechanical, electrical and magnetic properties on the surface at the nanoscale in diverse ambiances but also to follow, for example, in-situ dynamics or chemical reactions using electrochemical cells.
The other two instruments, managed by ICN2, will have the singularity of combining SPM and optical spectroscopies, enabling the correlation of optical, electronic, magnetic, thermal, chemical, and structural information down to the sub-nm scale.
One equipment will be operated in controlled gas and liquid environments, enabling operando measurements under different environments, or in electrochemical cells. All common AFM/STM modes will be accessible (STM, KPFM, MFM, EFM, LFM, PFM, SCM, Phase contrast, C-AFM). Optical spectroscopies will be dedicated to the VIS regime, aiming at extending to the NIR in the near future. Polarization dependent measurements will also be accessible. Singular features of the equipment will be the capability to study very low energy Raman modes (<10 cm-1), which enables the study of acoustic phonon modes and other low energy excitations, and the exceptionally high wavelength resolution (<0.2 cm-1), which enables the use of Raman spectroscopy for accurate thermal mapping, measurement of elastic constant of 2D materials, or for tracking small perturbations related to chemical interactions, doping, strain, etc. Multiscale studies will be conducted by combining the 10 nm resolution of tip-enhanced spectroscopies with the 500 nm resolution of a confocal microscope that is integrated in the equipment.
The second instrument will be operated in ultra-high vacuum (UHV) and cryogenic (5 K) conditions. The microscope chamber will be coupled to a materials growth chamber equipped for the growth of organic and inorganic films and nanostructures. The STM/nc-AFM head will have vertical and lateral spatial resolution of 1 pm and 100 pm respectively, which enables to bring structural and spectroscopic studies down to the single atom level. It will also have the capability to carry out elastic and inelastic spectroscopy in the presence of a magnetic field (1 T perpendicular to sample) with sub-meV resolution, giving access to the study of ground state electronic states, but also to low energy excitations such as vibrational, spin, Cooper pairs, Shiba states, etc. The optical spectroscopy set-up will have excitation sources in the VIS regime and detection in the NIR-VIS regime. Pulsed laser and bias voltages will enable time resolved measurements down to ps resolution, enabling the study of reaction kinetics at the single molecule level, fluorescence transients, or exciton dynamics. Measurement will be compatible with a 3-terminal configuration, enabling the operando study of optoelectronic devices.
The benefits of the SPM Platform are being presented at the Catalan, Spanish and international scientific community at conferences since 2022. In this context, the scientific responsible of the multipurpose AFMs is co-organizing the symposium "Scanning probe microscopies: a tool to understand and fabricate materials for future electronics (DFMC-GEFES)" at the XXXIX RSEF Physics Biennial to be held in Donostia (July 15th -19th, 2024). Outstandingly, the congress has a special section devoted to research combining SPM techniques with synchrotron radiation The symposium is expected to bring together the scientific community working with both characterization techniques and show the last advances in the field.
