Yimei Zhu holds the Microscopy Today Innovation Award
Yimei Zhu
October / November 2011
Volume 9 Number 5
Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Yimei Zhu is an internationally recognized innovator who recently received an R&D 100 Award for his work on a important new tool for electron microscopy. He recently accepted the 2011 Microscopy Today Innovation Award on behalf of Brookhaven Lab and Nanofactory Instruments, AB, for the tool he developed called the multimodal optical nanoprobe.
Zhu, a senior physicist, led the Brookhaven team that worked with Nanofactory, a Swedish company that develops and markets scanning probe microscopy instrumentation, to develop the nanoprobe. The device is mounted on a transmission electron microscope to measure numerous properties of a sample simultaneously, in addition to imaging.
The nanoprobe measures the optical, electrical, mechanical and structural properties of nano-sized materials and devices that are magnified from 1,000 to 50 million times. Combining various measurement techniques in one instrument offers a new level of material characterization that is not possible by sequential application of the techniques. These capabilities have been streamlined into a single package that, with minimal expense and difficulty, can be integrated into almost any electron microscopy system.
Zhu said, “The nanoprobe enables researchers to simultaneously measure a material's structural behavior under various stimuli, including electric, optical and mechanical ones, and to evaluate its functionality and performance. Here, simultaneously is the key. For example, if we want to improve the efficiency of a solar cell to harness energy for the sun, we need to shine a light on the device and measure the electric current it generates at the same time, while observing the response of electronic structure and atomic arrangement at specific sites of interest. This capability is unprecedented and is a big improvement over sequentially determining these qualities.”
The nanoprobe can be used in a wide variety of experiments to help scientists understand how optical, electrical, mechanical and structural properties of functional materials and devices are intertwined. This information is vital to making improvements in optoelectronic systems, such as fiber optic communications, laser systems, remote sensing systems, medical diagnostic systems and optical information systems. It is an important tool in photovoltaics research to reveal site-specific optoelectronic properties of materials and devices. In other applications, the nanoprobe can help determine strain effects on various properties of nanostructured materials, such as quantum dots, nanowires and graphene sheets. The nanoprobe tip can be pressed on the point of interest in a sample to investigate the local stress response and strain distribution.
Zhu is group leader at the Department of Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science, and a co-founder of the Center for Functional Nanomaterials. He is also an adjunct professor at Columbia University and Stony Brook University. His research interests include advanced electron microscopy and nanostructured energy materials. Zhu earned his Ph.D. from Nagoya University, Japan.
Brookhaven Lab designed and built the laser system and holder for the nanoprobe. Brookhaven funded the construction of the device's holder by Nanofactory Instruments.Brookhaven Science Associates, the company that manages Brookhaven for the Department of Energy, has applied for a patent on the device.
Kay Cordtz is a writer at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
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