Facilities and Instrumentation
MSEC faculty, staff, and students have access to a wide range of state-of-the-art research instrumentation and equipment.
Analysis Research Service Center (ARSC)
The Analysis Research Service Center (ARSC) spans multiple locations in the Roy F. Mitte (RFM) and Jerome C. Supple (SUPP) buildings and hosts equipment utilized to probe the structure, composition, and electrical/magnetic properties of matter. Electron and Optical Microscopy equipment allows the user to image sample features across 6 orders of magnitude to "see" and understand everything from metal\concrete castings to bacteria to nanoparticles. Various photon energies are utilized for spectroscopic interrogation from infrared to x-ray wavelengths revealing information such as bond energy, crystal structure, and stoichiometry. Scanning probe techniques allow the user to maximize spatial resolution when measuring mechanical, electrical, magnetic, and piezoelectric properties with ultra-sharp "tips". Finally, electrical/magnetic characterization measures the response of a sample to an applied field that allows determination of properties like magnetization, carrier mobility, impedance, and conductivity.
Nanofabrication Research Service Center (NRSC)
The Nanofabrication Research Service Center (NRSC) is a 2000 ft2 multi-user clean room facility located on the first floor of the Roy F. Mitte (RFM) building organized into five main areas where students and researchers can fabricate films, structures, and devices at the micrometer and nanometer scale. Users must enter through the gowning area that contains garments required to protect the cleanroom from particles. The class 10,000 instruction area houses high temperature furnaces, physical vapor deposition systems, wet chemical benches, chemical storage, and electrical test equipment utilized by undergraduate courses. The class 1000 research area houses deposition, etching, thermal treatment, and metrology equipment to support sponsored research and graduate coursework. The class 100 research space hosts the most sensitive lithography process equipment. The utility chase houses support equipment such as water cooling, vacuum pumps, exhaust abatement, and compressed gas delivery systems.
Epitaxy Research Service Center (ERSC)
The Epitaxy Research Service Center (ERSC) is located in the Roy F. Mitte (RFM) building and contains a unique set of equipment all designed to grow crystalline thin films in a process called heteroepitaxy. The two main types of systems utilized to grow these thin films are a high vacuum Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) multi-chamber cluster and a high temperature Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) reactor. These systems are typically segregated by material family to prevent cross contamination and allow our researchers to experiment with a large portion of the periodic table in search of new functional semiconductor and oxide materials.
Individual Faculty Research Laboratories
Departmental Facilities and Instrumentation
Departments affiliated with the MSEC program house instrumentation to meet the teaching and research needs of the department. Discover department facilities and instrumentation below: