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Advanced EUV/soft X-ray microscopy in the ultrafast regime: imaging functionality of nanomaterials across length scales

Project description

Advanced ultrafast imaging of light-activated nanomaterials

With technology miniaturisation, functional materials activated by light are engineered in the deep nanoscale regime, where bulk macroscopic models can no longer accurately predict heat, charge or spin transport. As a result, smart design of functional nanosystems has to date represented a complex task. The EU-funded ULTRAIMAGE project addresses this challenge, introducing a new method for microscopy that can image sustainable nanomaterials activated by light pulses, with high spatial and temporal resolution. ULTRAIMAGE will enable a better understanding of fundamental nanoscale behaviour and the rational design of next generation devices.

Objective

Imaging charge, spin, and energy flow in functional materials when hit by a light pulse, is a current grand challenge in nanotechnology relevant to a host of systems including photovoltaics, optoelectronic and spin devices. The design of such materials relies critically on the availability of accurate characterisation tools of how light-induced function and performance are related to nano-to-mesoscale electronic and lattice structural properties.
To address this challenge, ULTRAIMAGE will introduce ground-breaking capabilities in microscopy of nanomaterials, providing access to their far-from-equilibrium states, with resolution on nanometer-to-Ångstrom length and femtosecond time scales. Key to this advance is the combination of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) to soft X-ray tabletop coherent light sources with a technique for coherent diffractive imaging called ptychography, in which multiple diffraction patterns from overlapping fields of view are processed by iterative algorithms to recover amplitude and phase images of sample and beam, separately.
Nanoscale movies of the sample’s impulsive response, irradiated by ultrafast laser pulses, will be obtained with extremely high fidelity and in a non-destructive approach, with sub-20nm transverse resolution, 0.5Å axial precision, and ≈10fs temporal resolution. Each movie frame will be characterized by amplitude and phase images of the sample, with exquisite quantitative contrast to material composition, and to its topography.
ULTRAIMAGE will introduce a world-class tabletop facility for ultrafast ptychography with coherent short-wavelength EUV light, which will enable the understanding with unprecedented detail of fundamental nanoscale behaviour, vital to a better design of energy-efficient next generation devices.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

ERC-STG - Starting Grant

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) ERC-2019-STG

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Host institution

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PAVIA
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 894 577,00
Address
STRADA NUOVA 65
27100 Pavia
Italy

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Region
Nord-Ovest Lombardia Pavia
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 894 577,00

Beneficiaries (2)

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