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Facilities

Our in-house experimental facility is tailored towards growth and characterization of surfaces and thin films.  Physical vapor deposition is done in a UHV system (~10-10Torr) using techniques like pulsed laser deposition, e-beam evaporation and ion-beam sputtering. Our experiments involve the study of non-equilibrium processes, such the dynamic coupling of intense lasers with growing film and the growth of a variety of materials, including metals, ceramics, semiconductors and glasses.  Characterization of the films and surfaces are done using atomic force microscopy (AFM) or via SEM and TEM which are part of central facilities. Click on the links below or scroll through to learn more about our lab faciliites and the centralized faciliites. 


System Overview UHV Chamber Laser AFM Computing User Facilities

system

System Overview
  • UHV deposition system (~5x10-10 Torr)
  • Multiple physical vapor deposition (PVD) - PLD, e-beam & Sputtering
  • High-power Pulsed Laser
  • Vibration-isolated chamber + laser
chamber

Chamber
  • Custom-built (Nor-Cal) multi-port chamber with Thermionics load-lock chamber
  • Pumping by Mag. bearing Osaka TMP, Physical Electronics Ion Pump and Leybold Mechanical pump (~5x10-10 Torr)
  • VAT gate valves with Varian Controller
  • Thermionics 2-axis sample manipulator with Liq. N2 cooled variable-T stage (-150 to 500 oC) for 1" substrates
  • Tectra-GMBH Mini e-flux evaporator
  • Model 1301 Diff. Pumped Ion Gun
  • Inficon Thickness/deposition rate monitor
laser

Laser & Optics
  • Spectra-Physics Quanta Ray Lab 130 Nd:YAG laser
    • 4th Harmonic (266 nm), 10 ns pulse width, 50 Hz rate
    • 2m coherence length (injection seeded)
    • Peak Power of 35MW at 1064nm and ~5MW at 266nm,  ~10 mm beam diameter
  • Ophir Power meter
  • UV-grade beamsplitters, lenses, mirrors & vacuum port windows
  • Piezo-drive optical mirror mounts
  • Thorlabs opto-mechanical components
afm

Scanning Probe Microscope

(Instrument Jointly operated with Electrical Engineering)
  • A molecular imaging corporation PicoScan Module with AFM, non-contact AFM and STM
    (For more information: www.agilent.com/find/afm)

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Computing Facilities
  • Several PC's running linux and windows OS with the latest processors.
  • We also have access to the high-power Parallel Supercomputing Center based in the Physics department for more intense modeling using ADEPT.

User/Central Facilities

 Besides the facilities in our lab, there are various university-wide facilities that are available to us.
  1. Facilites through the center for materials innovation (CMI)
  2. Transmission Electron Microscope - Jeol 2000FX
  3. Scanning Electron Microscope-Hitachi S-4500
    For more information: http://www.hitachi-hitec.com/
  4. X-Ray Diffraction
    A 1.5kW Siemens x-ray generator with a computer controlled powder diffractometer and an exit beam monochromator, a Debye Scherrer Camera and a Laue Camera exist in the Physics Department.
  5. NanoSims Machine-CAMECA NanoSIMS
    For more information: http://www.cameca.fr/html/product_nanosims.html
  6. The Department of Physics Machine Shop
    The Physics Department Machine Shop is a technical support facility whose primary function is to provide technical assistance to the students, faculty, researchers, andadministration. The Shop's duties include the design and construction of state-of-the-art research project s and related equipment for the experimentalist groups located in the Physics department. (For more information contact Todd Hardt at : tah at wuphys dot wustl dotedu)
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