Computer Integrated Systems for Microscopy and Manipulation (CISMM) offers custom 3D force microscopy systems; electron, fluorescence and atomic force microscopes; nanoparticle synthesis; and facilities for graphics and virtual reality display.

http://cismm.cs.unc.edu/

Research in soft condensed matter is concerned with materials whose basic units consist of many atoms or molecules. Examples include complex fluids such as biological and synthetic polymers, emulsions, liquid crystals, and colloids (aka nanoparticles), as well as gels and granular materials. There is also a close connection between biology and soft condensed matter physics. The constituents of living tissues – protein, DNA, cells and cellular membranes – are complex fluids. Biological systems also provide a rich setting for exploring many fundamental issues in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. Research at the CSMR focuses on a broad spectrum of fundamental problems in soft condensed matter and biological physics. These include the the glass transition & jamming, self-replication, self-assembly, protein folding, and the statistical mechanics of driven dissipative systems far from equilibrium.

The Atom Probe Tomography Laboratory is an associated facility of the Renewable Energy MRSEC at the Colorado School of Mines directed by Professor Brian Gorman. The laboratory has two advanced atom probe systems, both acquired through a recent NSF MRI development grant led by Professor Brian Gorman. The atom probes are being used to investigate materials atom by atom to speed deployment of advanced materials processing, and a new dynamic atom probe is under development that will be able to integrate atomic spatial and chemical resolution measurements with sub-ns temporal resolution for monitoring diffusion, phase transformations, and crystallization processes.

The facility consists of portable high-speed video equipment to be signed out by MRSEC members. Due to the extremely high demand for high-speed imaging, this facility has recently been augmented by the purchase of 4 new cameras to supplement the two instruments that were available previously (a Kodak Motion Corder video camera and a Vision Research Phantom v7.0). The new cameras include a pair of Vision Research Phantom v7.3-turbo cameras that allow the reconstruction of 3-dimensional motion and structures, a Phantom v9.1 for increased resolution (at slower frame rates) useful for the high-speed X-ray imaging applications, and a color Phantom v7.1. The purchase of these cameras was leveraged through MRSEC and other University support.

This facility has been extensively used in outreach activities as well as in research. For example, the high speed video is used to film the events at the annual "Physics with a Bang!" lectures so that the audience can see the surprising phenomena involved in explosions, fracture and fluid behavior that occurs too rapidly to be observed by the human eye.

In response to the need for x-ray imaging and tomography capabilities at our MRSEC we have developed a new mobile facility centered around a C-arm x-ray system. The heart of this facility is a state-of-the-art OrthoScan HD mini C-arm that uses a flat panel x-ray detector to allow for video rate imaging. The resolution is 2,000 x 1,500 pixels and the field of view can be as large as 6”x5”. The C-arm configuration means that source and detector are mounted at the ends of a c-shaped brace that can be rotated manually in two orthogonal directions as well as translated in xyz. This makes it possible to bring the unit to experiments in any of the labs of MRSEC faculty and to image components without removing them, as long as the C-arm will fit around the piece to be x-rayed (max. gap between source and detector 14”). The unit is fully computer controlled and allows for a variety of different imaging modalities. A special feature of this facility is an add-on we developed, which uses a computer controlled stepper system to rotate samples up to 6” tall and 3” wide at the center of the C-arm in order to perform tomographic imaging.

This facility maintains various magnet, cryogenic and optical systems operating either separately or together. The systems are designed to be as flexible as possible, and to allow several types of measurements to be performed over a wide range in magnetic field, temperature, and probe frequencies (including both uhf/microwave and optical). The dc and uhf/microwave frequency measurements that are routinely performed include magnetization and magnetic susceptibility, acoustic propagation, microwave absorption, electrical transport (including thermoelectric measurements). Routine optical measurements include optical absorption, photoluminescence, pump-probe studies, and Raman spectroscopy.

Lending Library

Facility Director

songi [at] chem [dot] ucsb [dot] edu (Professor Song-I Han)

Technical Director

jghu [at] mrl [dot] ucsb [dot] edu (Dr. Jerry Hu)

Email: jghu-at-mrl.ucsb.edu
Phone (office): (805) 893-7914
Phone (lab): (805) 893-7940

Lab Technician

jaya [at] mrl [dot] ucsb [dot] edu (Jaya Nolt)

Email: jaya-at-mrl.ucsb.edu
Phone: (805) 893-4997

NMR Specialist

shamonwalker [at] mrl [dot] ucsb [dot] edu (Shamon Walker)

Email: shamonwalker-at-mrl.ucsb.edu
Phone: (805) 893-6079

Spectroscopy Facility Help

If you have questions, issues or comments please email us at nmrhelp [at] mrl [dot] ucsb [dot] edu (nmrhelp)

Our 5,000-square-foot clean room is used by Princeton University students, faculty, staff, and other researchers to fabricate semiconductor, microfluidic, and MEMS devices. The laboratory consists of class 1000 rooms for deposition and etch, a class 100 room for lithography, a separate electron beam lithography cleanroom, a lapping/polishing lab, and a packaging lab.

A special strength of the lab is the ability to handle a wide variety of substrates in our tools, from the usual III-V and silicon semiconductor substrates to the more unusual glass, metal, and plastic foils used in novel flexible electronics applications. Substrate sizes range from a few square mm InP to 150 mm diameter Si wafers.

The lab has a complete range of fabrication tools, including:

• Thin-film formation techniques, such as conventional and plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, thermal and electron-beam evaporators, metal and dielectric sputterers, and high-temperature diffusion and oxidation.
• Pattern transfer by plasma etching, with 6 reactors dedicated to etching a wide range of materials including thin film dielectrics, GaAs, InP and related compounds, Si and SiGe. The laboratory recently installed a Deep Si etch tool for MEMS and biofluidic device fabrication.
• Lithography with contact printers, a photomask generator, a nanoimprinter and an electron beam writer.