MRI: Acquisition of optical access in a cryogenic scanning probe microscope for quantum sensing capabilities

Materials science is in the midst of a second quantum revolution where quantum phenomena on a macroscopic scale enable new forms of quantum materials and quantum technologies with revolutionizing impact in medicine, banking, and defense due to quantum enabled advances in information technology, sensing, communication, computation, simulation and cryptography to name just a few examples. This Major Research Instrumentation award supports the University of Nebraska-Lincoln which hosts the Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience (NCMN) and its NSF funded EPSCoR center on emerging quantum materials and technologies.

With this MRI award, researchers will take full advantage of the existing cryogenic scanning probe microscope which enables atomic, magnetic and piezo force microscopy at temperatures between 4 and 300K and magnetic fields up to 9T, and utilize it to create a commercial high-resolution quantum sensing platform. This versatile characterization tool is a quantum sensing application which enables state-of-the-art characterization of novel quantum materials.

The instrument puts Nebraska on the map as a pioneer in many areas of quantum materials science. Because the instrument is part of NCMN’s core facilities, it becomes accessible to internal and external users. Access to this instrumentation paves the way for Nebraska’s emerging quantum technology-based economy, which builds on the existing high-tech industry within the Silicon Prairie.

Equally important is the fact that the access to this instrument allows educating students and training quantum engineers for the much-needed quantum workforce.

This Track 1 Major Research Instrumentation award is for the acquisition of a Nitrogen Vacancy (NV)-Attocube (Atto) atomic force microscope (AFM) integrated with a confocal microscope (CFM), which allows magnetic, optical, and quantum measurements at the nanometer scale. The instrument will be located at the Surface and Materials Characterization division of the Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience (NCMN) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL).

The acquisition of the module will transform the existing NSF-funded low-temperature high-magnetic-field multifunctional scanning probe microscope into a versatile platform for NV quantum sensing and fundamental research on quantum entanglement. The point defect atomic nature of the NV center and its spin millisecond quantum coherence lifetime allow measurements of a wide range of quantum materials with high sensitivity and spatial resolution (< 40 nm).

Additionally, it operates at high magnetic fields and across a wide range of temperatures. The system can support various experiments, including magnetic imaging of solid-state materials and biomolecules as well as mapping optical and thermal properties of low-dimensional materials. Currently, there are five similar instruments in the U.S. with limitations in types of materials studied (e.g., only superconductors) or magnetic field range (only < 0.5 T).

In acquiring the NV-AttoAFM/CFM, the goal is to position UNL at the forefront of quantum sensing capabilities ushering in the age of applied quantum technologies in Nebraska and U.S. Midwest. The infrastructure of NCMN, a user facility serving the Midwest research community and startup companies, includes the technical support of a PhD-trained expert in scanning probe microscopy, which ensures long-term maintenance, sustainability, and user support.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.