Within our ERC Starting Grant “Taking Force Microscopy into the Third Dimension”, we developed a major improvement to a technique based on Magnetic Resonance.
The technique is called Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy, and measures the interaction of a rotating spin (a magnetic moment) in the field gradient of a magnetic Force Microscopy tip.
The research motivation here is that radicals, which play an important role in surface chemistry, for example in renewable energy, such as fuel cells, batteries, organic solar cells etc., carry an unpaired electron and hence a spin (magnetic moment) and therefore can be studied with magnetic resonance.
We have found a novel route, which makes surface spins readily detectable. In conventional magnetic resonance the low density of surface spins precludes their detection. In this proposal, we want to investigate whether the market for a simplified version of our instrument is sufficiently large to make the commercialization of a simplified instrument attractive for investors.