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Three-dimensional (3D) structures of molecules determined from nanoscale regions of crystalline arrays could potentially illuminate the subtle differences that engender crystal defects or the multiple states accessible to subpopulations of molecules within an ensemble. A step toward this goal involves the extraction of meaningful diffraction data from 3D regions on the nanoscale. This is achieved using a near-parallel electron beam designed to illuminate sub-10nm regions of a sample. Scanning such a beam across a sample allows for digital logic to be applied to the measured data, facilitating the expostfacto assortment of information and reduction from desired 3D subvolumes.

A STROBE team from UCLA, UC Berkeley and LBNL collaborated to determine the first molecular structures determined by 4DSTEM. The structures were determined from a digitally defined subregion of a nanocrystal. After collecting TB of data, the team obtained reconstructions that revealed the atomic structure of a peptide, and showed that radiation damage imparted on the sample during data collection was not prohibitive for structure determination. Compared to other approaches, the approach allows for a much greater degree of control and obviates the need for spatial separation of samples. New methods, algorithms, enhanced microscopes and advanced sample preparation techniques developed by the STROBE collaboration were key to enabling the success of this project.

Scattering scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) provides for spectroscopic imaging from molecular to quantum materials with few nanometer deep sub-diffraction limited spatial resolution. However, conventional acquisition methods are often too slow to fully capture a large field of view spatio-spectral dataset. Through this collaboration, STROBE researchers, at CU Boulder and the ALS –Berkeley, demonstrated how the data acquisition time and sampling rate can be significantly reduced while maintaining or even enhancing the physical or chemical image information content. The novel data acquisition and mathematical concepts implemented are based on advanced data compressed sampling, matrix completion, and adaptive random sampling. This research is of particular interest in synchrotron based nano-imaging facilities. This work paves the way to true spatio-spectral chemical and materials nano-spectroscopy with a reduction of sampling rate by up to 30 times.

Next-generation nano and quantum devices have increasingly complex 3D structure. As the dimensions of these devices shrink to the nanoscale, their performance is often governed by interface quality or precise chemical or dopant composition. A STROBE team from CU Boulder, UCLA, UC Berkeley, as well as laser and nanoelectronics industry partners, worked together for 4 years to design, construct and commission the first phase-sensitive extreme ultraviolet imaging reflectometer. It combines the excellent phase stability of tabletop coherent extreme UV (EUV) light sources, the unique chemical- and phase-sensitivity of coherent EUV imaging, and state-of-the-art algorithms. This tabletop microscope can non-destructively probe surface topography, layer thicknesses, and interface quality, as well as dopant concentrations and profiles. High-fidelity imaging was achieved by implementing phase sensitive imaging at different angles, by using advanced methods to mitigate noise and artifacts in the reconstructed image, and by using a high-brightness, EUV source with excellent intensity and wavefront stability. These measurements were validated through multiscale electron and atomic force microscopy imaging to show that this approach has unique advantages compared with others. Critical to this project were new photon and electron-based imaging methods, advanced algorithms, unique samples, as well STROBE advances in tabletop coherent imaging in transmission and reflection mode. Several STROBE trainees received awards for this effort.

Setting bounds on the absorption cross-sections of molecular systems. There has been a long-running controversy regarding the “quantum advantage” for multiphoton excitation of molecules with entangled photons and if quantum multiphoton imaging can be realized. Although theoretical proposals have been advanced for decades, no experimental work (with the exception of a publication by Jeff Kimble’s group in the 1990s) appeared in the literature until 2006 when reports from a small number of groups began to emerge of a large quantum enhancement (e.g. up to 10 orders of magnitude) of the two photon excitation rate using entangled pairs compared to classical light. Last year, a paper describing a microscope based on the “entangled two-photon absorption” (E2PA) effect was published in Journal of the American Chemical Society. On the other hand, it has emerged from discussions at scientific meetings that many researchers have failed to replicate the results in these numerous publications, or to find any other evidence for this enhancement. As a result, there is considerable skepticism of the publications making these remarkable claims. Unfortunately, these negative results haven’t been published and therefore a rigorous basis for resolving the controversy hasn’t yet been established. Finally, new experiments at JILA have finally set upper-bounds for the E2PA cross-sections in molecular fluorophores, including those investigated in previous reports. We performed both classical and quantum light excitation in the same optical transmission and fluorescence-based systems with rigorously characterized states of light and measurement sensitivities. We find that E2PA cross-sections are at least four to five orders of magnitude smaller than previously reported. Our results imply that the signals and images reported in previous publications are artifacts. Although we don’t expect this contribution to be the last word on the subject, this work introduces a new level of experimental rigor that will lead towards new designs for quantum microscopes and sensors.