Dr. Matt Trawick receives NSF grant

August 29, 2012
Dr. Matt Trawick, Associate professor of Physics, has been awarded a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation in the amount of $140.201.  The supported research is “Single Molecule Metrology in Scanning Probe Microscopy through Correction of Fast Time Scale Positional Errors.”

The funds will support summer stipends for Dr. Trawick and several undergraduate student researchers, as well as materials, supplies, and travel to professional meetings to present the results.

In his proposal, Dr. Trawick said, “The goal of this project is to develop a software-based technique for correcting a class of fast time-scale metrological errors (imaging artifacts) that are common in Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM).  These artifacts, which include electrostatic charging and adsorption of material on the AFM tip, effectively add a time-varying error signal to all imaging data recorded.  As a result, while commercially available instruments are sensitive enough to detect  features as small as single molecules, quantitative metrology of a surface with that degree of precision is generally not possible.”

Dr. Trawick has taught Physics at the University of Richmond since 2004, and has degrees from Oberlin (BA) and Ohio State (MS and PhD).  He has published a number of articles in scientific journals, and recently developed international collaborations while conducting research at a scientific institute in France.