Department of Mechanical Engineering

Institute of Combinatorial Science Seminar Series - “Quantitative Mechanical Measurement at the Nanometer Scale”

 

Institute of Combinatorial Science Seminar Series

Tuesday, 11:00 A.M, March 20, 2007
1322 Hoover Hall

Dr. Chanmin Su
Director of Research, Veeco Instruments Inc.

“Quantitative Mechanical Measurement at the Nanometer Scale”

Abstract:

The lack of high-speed quantitative measurements of mechanical properties at the nanoscale has been identified as a major bottleneck for the development of new materials. To achieve high fidelity mechanical measurements with temporal resolution of nanoseconds and spatial resolution of nanometers, we have explored three approaches, namely, tapping harmonics; contact resonance and quasi-static indenting. Combination of these methods allowed us to achieve highly consistent stiffness measurements that are scalable for materials from a few MPa to tens of GPa. Various models used to extract elastic modulus and hardness have been developed and validated through experiments and finite elements analysis. This presentation will discuss critical factors that lead to reliable mechanical measurements with special emphasis on innovative experimental techniques that address some of the main barriers currently preventing AFMs from being widely used for mechanical measurement. We will also address some of the key unresolved issues.

Dr. Chanmin Su obtained his Ph.D. in solid state physics from Chinese Academy of Science in China. He was a research assistant professor in the department of material science at Univ. of Maryland (Sept. 1991 –Aug.1994), the manager of the center of microanalysis at the same institute (before September 1994—Aug. 1998),and the principle scientist at Raytheon Inc. (Sept. 1998—Nov. 1999) before joining Veeco in Dec. 1999. Dr. Su has published over 50 journal articles in areas including solid physics, material science, and scanning probe microscopy. He also holds 7 US patents, and has earned an R&D 100 award in 2000 for developing the Nanoscope IV AFM controller.

For questions, please contact Qingze Zou at qzzou@iastate.edu

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