| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,160,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥960,000)
Fiscal Year 2015: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000)
Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥1,820,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥420,000)
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
I improved Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) for observation of ice crystal surfaces. I controlled ambient temperature and humidity by using commercial incubator and homemade observation cell by using Peltier elements with water-cooled system. Then I succeeded in scanning single ice crystals by using AFM.
However, we newly found that Quasi-Liquid Layers (QLLs) on ice crystal surfaces do not appear under equilibrium environment because QLLs are deposited from supersaturated water vapor. The most important point of AFM observation of ice crystals is suppression of vertically moving of ice surfaces. Therefore, it was difficult that QLLs were stably observed by AFM under saturated water vapor pressure. Instead of using AFM, we could estimate the thicknesses of two types of QLLs by interferometer and wetting theory. In addition, we found that QLLs are stable under equilibrium environment in the presence of hydrogen chloride gas and QLLs under such environment would be observed by AFM.
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