Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	GR/L02234/01
Title:	ULTRASONIC FORCE MICROSCOPE - IMAGING AND MEASURING NANOSCALE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
Principal Investigator:	Briggs, Professor GAD
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department:	Materials
Organisation:	University of Oxford
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 March 1997	Ends:	31 August 2000	Value (£):	172,134
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Surfaces & Interfaces
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
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Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
We will develop a new approach for the imaging sand quantitative evaluation of dynamic mechanical properties of materials with nanoscale resolution and to apply it to the investigation of mechanical nanoscale of materials. This goal is achieved by merging the nanoscale resolution of Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) with the exceptional sensitivity of Scanning Acoustic Microscopy (SAM) to the materials elastic moduli and their dynamic behaviour (e.g. viscoelastic relaxation) evaluated on an ultrasonic timescale (i.e. of sub-microsecond to nanosecond range) in the new kind of a microscope - the Ultrasonic Force Microscope. New device will utilise a physical principle of non-linear detection of ultrasound in AFM. We will test the experimental methods for excitation and detection of ultrasound on a UFM prototype based on the commercial SPM. We will also design and implement the compact UFM for studies the physics of dynamic tip-surface interaction in the controlled environment and perform theoretical and experimental investigation such phenomena. This will facilitate the development of quantitative methods for the evaluation of elastic and visco-elastic moduli with naniscale resolution necessary investigate the nanoscale mechanical structure of materials of different origin. We will also demonstrate the effectiveness of the UFM for the research and industrial purposes and create its industrial prototype.
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Organisation Website:	http://www.ox.ac.uk