Workpackage coordinator: Michael Hohage

Nanoanalytics is a core competence of the NanoScience and -Technology Center Linz (NSTL), and of central relevance for the Topical Fields pursued in the RPC NSI. In the preceding proposals, nanoanalytics was incorporated into the individual RPs either in the form of work packages or as subcontracts. For the development and application of transmission electron microscopy and of optical nanoanalytical techniques a new approach is chosen, namely re-organization into the new BI-RP NanoProbe, which fulfills a bridging function above the two TFs of NSI-3. Combining the development of these techniques in a new BI-RP has two main motivations:
(i) TEM analyses were always essential for the RPC, but were limited to the techniques and equipment available in Linz. Concentrating TEM development and analyses in a dedicated BI project provides an opportunity to enhance the scope available to the consortium via an additional partner, the Center for Electron Microscopy and Nanoanalytics in Graz (FELMI), which has strong expertise in high-resolution, element-specific EFTEM (energy filtered TEM) analyses. TEM analyses will also benefit from the re-organization of nano- and surface analytical techniques at the Johannes Kepler University (JKU) in Linz into the Center for Nano- and Surface Analytics (ZONA), which will be the coordinating partner in NanoProbe. ZONA will bring in new infrastructure, in particular, a newly commissioned Zeiss cross beam electron microscope with SEM and FIB columns, and a Leica ultramicrotom for the TEM preparation of polymers with and without embedded nanocrystals or nanotubes.
(ii) In the case of the optical techniques (RDS, SE, MOKE), the successful work of the first two funding periods is continued with focus on the optical techniques for magnetic characterization. In particular, MOKE is of strong relevance for the RPs NanoShape and NanoInk, which are concentrated on magnetic nanocrystals. Because MOKE probes the magnetic properties, complementary information to the structural and compositional information gained from HRTEM and EFTEM is provided.
NanoProbe contains two TEM work packages that deal with high-resolution TEM imaging and element-specific mapping of two material systems of great importance for the consortium, namely magnetic phases in a crystalline (here: GaN) host, and magnetic core-shell nanocrystals. The aim of these work packages is the development of HRTEM and EFTEM with respect to new problems related to the RPC. A third work package will deal with the development of optical spectroscopy for magnetic characterization. Applications of the magneto-optical techniques yield magnetic information and thus supplement the TEM investigations regarding the two aforementioned material systems. In addition, magnetic clusters on magnetic organic molecules will be investigated, to study the interplay of RDS, RD-MOKE and SE-MOKE. These three work packages are of scientific and technical interest by themselves, but also serve the long-term goals of the RPC and the consortium members by developing nanoanalytical tools beyond the state of the art. A supplemental work package provides service functions for the work packages in NanoProbe and the RCP by developing TEM preparation techniques for the various material systems investigated within NSI.

This project is funded by the Austrian NANO Intiative (bmvit and FFF) under contract number 0112-08-BI.