Facilities
Shared Facilities
The nine Central Facilities play a major role in our Materials Center, providing crucial support to the evolving scientific and technical needs of the IRGs. Moreover, interactions that take place within these facilities often lead to the collaborative efforts between different research groups which are the hallmark of our program. From the training received, students acquire a broad interdisciplinary outlook on materials research, and this helps us transfer technical know-how from one generation of students to the next. Most of the facilities are headed by a professional staff member, and all are supervised by Materials Center faculty. Our technical staff maintains and improves the equipment, performs measurements or prepares samples, and especially, trains students, research associates, and faculty to use the equipment. Some of the major services and equipment are highlighted below. Additionally, the Materials Center provides access to specialized, affiliated facilities such as the Institute for Biophysical Dynamics nanobiology facility, scanning transmission electron microscopy and magnetic resonance imaging. In response to the needs of several of the IRGs, a number of facilities have been upgraded, reorganized, or newly established (such as the Microfluidics Facility). Additional upgrades are planned as the scientific needs of our Center evolve.
- Computational Facility
- Electronics Laboratory
- Image Processing Facility
- Low Temperature Laboratory
- Materials Preparation Laboratory
- Microfluidics Facility
- Protein Expression Facility
- Student Shop
- X-ray and Neutron Scattering Facility
1. Computational Facility
Faculty Supervisor: T. Witten
Technical Staff: B. Busby, P. Lauss
This facility is operated jointly with the JFI and provides infrastructure support for computation and networking, centralized services such as multi-platform file sharing, e-mail, web hosting and printing for the MRSEC, as well as Macintosh, Windows and UNIX (Linux, Solaris, AIX, HP/UX and IRIX) operating system support for ~80 Unix/Linux- and ~140 Mac/Windows-based machines in MRSEC labs throughout the Research Institutes. Several Silicon Graphics and Sun workstations, Power Macs and Linux PCs, and a high-speed laser printer are maintained in a dedicated computer room for MRSEC members and their visitors.
2. Electronics Laboratory
Faculty Supervisor: N. Scherer
Technical Staff: D. Smith, G. Jendraszkiewicz
The lab provides professional consultation on problems regarding electronics design and operation. It also provides fee-based repair and equipment construction services to MRSEC members. In the recent past, it has designed and constructed specialized circuitry for laser power and timing stabilization, computer interfaces for electron energy spectrometers, and high-frequency quadrature signal demodulators. In addition, the lab maintains a pool of electronic measurement and test equipment that can be signed out by MRSEC members.
3. Image Processing Facility
Faculty Supervisor: S. Nagel
The facility consists of portable equipment to be signed out by MRSEC members. This equipment includes an image processing cart with a commercial, high-end VCR and monitor, controlled by a PC with frame grabber and extensive software for image manipulation. Also available is a Kodak Motion Corder video camera, able to acquire images at speeds of up to 10,000 frames/second and to download the data to either video-tape or computer. We have just purchased a new fast camera from Vision Research, Phantom v7.0, which can take photographs at a rate of up to 160,000 frames per second.
4. Low-Temperature Laboratory
Faculty Supervisor: W. Kang
The low-temperature laboratory operates a CTI1400 helium liquefier and maintains a Linde TL6000 liquid nitrogen tank of 24,000 liter capacity, a recovery system for helium, and centralized pumping stations for cryogenic experiments. Cryogenic liquids are sold to MRSEC members and non-members to recover production and storage costs. The lab oversees the use of a Quantum Design SQUID magnetometer and a top-loading dilution refrigerator, and makes available leak detectors to MRSEC members. The staff designs and constructs equipment (gas handling systems, cryogenic liquid fill devices & transfer tubes, and custom racks for experiments), provides technical consulting and instructs students in cryogenic techniques.
5. Materials Preparation Laboratory
Faculty Supervisor: H. Jaeger
Technical Staff: Dr. Qiti Guo
The Materials Preparation Laboratory provides facilities for sample fabrication,
processing, patterning and characterization. In response to demands in nanofabrication
and synthesis, we have more tightly coupled sample fabrication and characterization
by incorporating the previously separate Spectroscopic Facility into the
Prep Lab. Key capabilities include: a cleanroom area that houses a Digital
Instruments Nanoscope IIIa AFM/STM with capabilities for contact and tapping
AFM imaging modes, STM, electro-chemistry, and an environmental sample chamber
for in-situ AFM imaging up to +250 °C. Also in the cleanroom area is
a Hitachi S-2700 scanning electron microscope with a Nabity NPGS 8.0 system
for electron beam lithography. A WestBond wire bonder is in this area, too.
Photolithography down to feature sizes of 1µm is available, as is a Gaertner L116S ellipsometer, a South Bay Technology reactive ion etcher for CF4, SF6, and O2 plasma etching, and an automated STM tip etching system. To meet the increasing demands from more and more students and research staffs, we have set up a second spinner in the cleanroom area for sample preparation for electron beam lithography, and have purchased a new Digital Instruments Nanoscope IV AFM/STM for sample characterization. We currently have available three custom-built multisource, turbopumped evaporators. The Lab also houses equipment for crystal growth and heat treatment, chemical processing and sample cleaning, and mechanical processing.
For optical characterization of materials we maintain an automated UV-visible light spectrometer and a FTIR spectrometer. The FTIR spectrometer has been upgraded in 2003 with the most recent version of software and a new computer. Fluorescence study of optical materials is also available. In addition, the facility operates a Raman spectrometer with micro-Raman capability (designed to accommodate bulk macroscopic samples, films, and high-pressure, high-temperature diamond anvil cells), an ESR spectrometer, and a portable ultrasonic spectrometer (1-200 MHz). A key aspect of the Lab is extensive one-on-one training. After successful completion of such training with Dr. Guo, access to the equipment is free for MRSEC users. Sign-up sheets and logbooks, together with supervision by the full-time staff, provide orderly access and monitoring.
Several upgrades are pending for the next several years. They include a multiple-source electron beam evaporator for refractory metals and specialized thin film work, an energy-dispersive x-ray analyzer for the SEM to provide elemental mapping. Because of the ever-increasing demands on nanoscale analysis and characterization, we envision replacing our venerable "work horse" Hitachi S-2700 SEM with a newer, field emission SEM within the next 2 or 3 years.
6. Microfluidics Facility
Faculty Supervisor: R. Ismagilov
The microfluidic facility has been completed. Work included renovation of the room, purchase of a Leica motorized fluorescent microscope with Metamorph control and analysis station, and acquisition of pumping equipment. A station for measurements of surface tensions at liquid-liquid interfaces has been designed and built. The microfluidics facility now includes equipment dedicated to characterization and operation of microfluidic channels and networks. This will include equipment for measuring fluid viscosities, liquid/liquid and liquid/surface interfacial energies, as well as set-ups for pressure-driven fluid pumping. Quantitative fluorescence optical measurements of millisecond kinetics on microfluidic chips are possible with a high-numerical aperture compound microscope. A fluorescent stereomicroscope for slower sub-second kinetics, and for evaluation of protein assays developed in IRG 4 is also available.
7. Protein Expression Facility
Faculty Supervisor: M. Mrksich
This facility, special among MRSECs, provides the complete infrastructure for the expression of proteins, including cloning of genes, construction of plasmids, expression of recombinant proteins and purification of proteins. Its instrumentation includes a PCR thermocycler, apparatus for gel electrophoresis, incubators for bacterial culture, freezers and a cold room, chromatography for protein purification, lyophilizer, centrifuge, sonicator, and a FPLC protein purification system.
8. Student Shop
Faculty Supervisor: P. Guyot-Sionnest
Technical Staff: H. Krebs
Our fully equipped student machine shop plays a vital role in the training of MRSEC members, from undergraduates and REU students to postdocs. The shop gives MRSEC students the flexibility to easily design and safely produce machined parts and research prototypes. Main equipment includes several Bridgeport mills, Hardinge lathes, a CAD workstation and a welding station. The shop has been tremendously successful over the last several years due to the availability of highly motivated, exceptionally qualified staff for consultation and training. Training classes on machine operation and safety are regularly offered during the year (passing of this class is a prerequisite for working in the student shop). A purchase of an industrial-strength milling machine for general use is planned for 2006, after the move to our new building, as well as radius stressors for a surface grinder, and an indexing head capable of measuring within 1 degree.
9. X-ray and Neutron Scattering Facility
Faculty Supervisor: S. Rice
Technical Staff: Dr. J. Pluth
This facility is located in the Hinds Building for Geophysical Sciences and in the Searle Chemistry Laboratory. The facility has in house capabilities for x-ray single crystal diffraction, powder diffraction, crystal orientation determination and characterization of amorphous films. An important aspect of the facility is its link to Consortium of Advanced Radiation Sources (CARS) located at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory. This facility provides intense synchrotron radiation for structural studies of biologically important samples, ultra-small combined with wide angle scattering, x-ray surface scattering, time dependent crystallography, micro-crystallography, x-ray microprobe, micro-tomography, XAFS, and high pressure studies using diamond anvil cells and multi-anvil presses. Neutron scattering capabilities are provided through collaboration with scientists at the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source (IPNS) also located at Argonne National Laboratory.