Deposition and Microfabrication

EMSL offers deposition and microfabrication tools that can be used to tailor surfaces, atom by atom. With an emphasis on oxide mineral films and interfaces, users apply these tools to design and construct materials of various size distributions, ranging from high-quality, single-crystal thin films to nanostructures, with real-world applications. These materials are subsequently characterized and studied in detail using EMSL's mass spectrometry, microscopy, as well as spectroscopy and diffraction capabilities.

Additional Information

Capability Detail

Growth of complex oxide films research – to synthesize oxides of interest, with a high degree of control, for their chemical, catalytic, electronic, and magnetic properties
Geochemistry and biogeochemistry investigations – to prepare environmental interfaces such as stable oxides of iron that serve as substrates for heterogeneous surface organic, inorganic, and biochemical interactions
Photochemistry studies – to prepare crystalline pure and doped oxide films to study the role of heterojunctions in photochemistry and photocatalysis
Spintronics research – to construct magnetically doped transition metal oxides that exhibit ferromagnetism at and above room temperature and to determine the complex interrelationships between composition-structure and electronic-magnetic properties

Photo of deposition and microfabrication researchers

Microfabrication – to design and construct materials useful for chemical and biological sensing, to microfabricate components for optical microscopy applications, and to design and construct microfluidics systems
Ion soft-landing – to prepare uniform films of high-purity materials using low-energy beams of mass-selected complex ions

Refer to the table below for a full listing, which leads to complete information about each of EMSL's deposition and microfabrication instruments. In brief, these instruments offer EMSL users the following capabilities:

Unique oxygen plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy system designed in house
Metalorganic chemical vapor deposition
Ballistic deposition, spin coating, and wet chemical synthesis
Ion beam synthesis and ion beam-assisted deposition
Microfabrication equipment and clean-room capabilities.

Microstructures of ZnO Films Deposited on (0001) and r-cut α-Al₂O₃ Using Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (Sapphires & Sunscreen)
A Fast Analysis Technique to Evaluate Scintillation Response (Let There Be Light Yield)
Experimental Studies of Heterogeneous Gas-to-Particle Reactions Using Novel Particle-on-Substrate Stagnation Flow Reactor Approach (What Are the Chances?)
Conductivity of Oriented Samaria-Doped Ceria Thin Films Grown by Oxygen-Plasma-Assisted Molecular Beam Epitaxy (The Good Samaria)