The Electronic Materials and Nanostructures Laboratory (EMNLAB) is a group within the physical electronics branch of Electrical Engineering at The Ohio State University. The group focuses on using a wide array of analysis, processing, and growth techniques to investigate the surface, interface, and ultrathin film properties of semiconductors. The group is led by Dr. Brillson and consists of two full-size laboratories that house some of the latest surface analysis equipment.

The Electron Probe Instrumentation Center (EPIC) EPIC facility offers a wide range of electron microscopy (both transmission and scanning), accessory instrumentation, and expertise to the scientific and engineering community through education, collaboration, and service. The laboratory provides facilities for the preparation and examination of many types of bulk and thin specimens (foils/films), fine particles, and replicas, including biological materials, by transmission and scanning electron microscopy.

Collectively, the Electron Probe Instrumentation Center (EPIC) offers instrumentation, techniques, and expertise for all aspects of microstructure materials. Detailed information about surface morphology, size and shape analysis, local chemistry, crystallography, and texture can be obtained with the scanning electron microscopes (SEM). The SEM facility has four SEMs with digital image acquisition, including three equipped with field emission gun (FEG), and several have EDS systems. The transmission electron microscopes (TEM) allow researchers to probe the crystal structure, defects, local chemistry, electronic structure, and related information at the nanometer or less length scale. The TEM facility currently has three TEMs, one cold field emission gun (cFEG) (HF2000), one Schottky field emission gun (JEM2100F), and one thermal emission gun (H8100). All three microscopes are equipped with Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) system for local chemistry analysis; two are equipped with Gatan Imaging Filter (GIF) for spectral imaging and EELS analysis. Both FEG microscopes are equipped with STEM detectors. The JEOL JEM2100F FEG TEM/STEM has sub 0.2nm probe capability, equipped with high-angle annular dark field (HAADF) detector, which gives atomic resolution of Z-contrast imaging of STEM.

Both SEM and TEM facilities are equipped with specialized specimen stages for dynamic studies involving deformation, fracture, current transport, applied electrical and magnetic fields, and temperature variation from -184 ° C to 1000 ° C. The diversity and quality of SEM and TEM instrumentation, along with the numerous analytical accessories, makes EPIC one of the most advanced laboratories in the country.

Hybrid Molecular Design & Synthesis Laboratories include synthetic molecular materials design and synthesis facilities. These are molecules that have predicted structures and functional properties (e.g., photonics). The laboratories are located in Bagley 195 (Xia), Bagley 13B (Ginger) and Wilcox 249 & Roberts 209 (Jen). Contact Dr. Hanson Fong for details.

The Terahertz Facility of the Institute of Terahertz Science and Technology (ITST), partnering with the MRL through the Materials Research Facilities Network (MRFN), offers a wide range of one-of-a-kind and state of the art instrumentations. The instrumental capabilities commonly rely on radiation frequencies at the heart of the electromagnetic spectrum in the terahertz (THz) and sub-terahertz range. While this range offers tremendous new opportunities for the study of synthetic and biological materials in solution and solid state, it represents an underutilized spectroscopic regime, given the sparsity of high performance THz sources available. The Terahertz facility uniquely closes the gap with the UCSB Free Electron Lasers (FELs) covering 0.1-4.8 THz at kW power, a frequency-domain vector network analyzer covering 0.07-0.7 THz at lower power, two time-domain spectrometers one of which is a video-rate time-domain vector spectrometer covering 0.3-3 THz, a pulsed electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrometer at 0.24 Tesla powered by a low power source, as well as the highest power source available for EPR to date, the UCSB FELs.

For information regarding the instruments available and their recharge costs, please visit: http://www.itst.ucsb.edu

Facility Director:	sherwin [at] physics [dot] ucsb [dot] edu (Professor Mark Sherwin)
Facility Manager:	david [at] itst [dot] ucsb [dot] edu (David Enyeart)
Location:	Broida Hall 1362, 1380a, 1357

Na-ion batteries (NIBs) are proposed as a promising candidate for beyond Li-ion chemistries, however, a key challenge associated with NIBs is the inability to achieve intercalation in graphite anodes. This phenomenon has been investigated and is believed to arise due to the thermodynamic instability of Na-intercalated graphite. We have recently demonstrated theoretical calculations showing it is possible to achieve thermodynamically stable Na-intercalated graphene structures with a fluorine surface modifier. Here, we present experimental evidence that Na+ intercalation is indeed possible in fluorinated few-layer graphene (F-FLG) structures using cyclic voltammetry (CV), ion-sensitive scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) and in situ Raman spectroscopy. SECM and Raman spectroscopy confirmed Na+ intercalation in F-FLG, while CV measurements allowed us to quantify Na-intercalated F-FLG stoichiometries around NaC14–18. These stoichiometries are higher than the previously reported values of NaC186 in graphite. Our experiments revealed that reversible Na+ ion intercalation also requires a pre-formed Li-based SEI in addition to the surface fluorination, thereby highlighting the critical role of SEI in controlling ion-transfer kinetics in alkali-ion batteries. In summary, our findings highlight the use of surface modification and careful study of electrode-electrolyte interfaces and interphases as an enabling strategy for NIBs.

Lipid membranes in nature adapt and reconfigure to changes in composition, temperature, humidity, and mechanics. For instance, the oscillating mechanical forces on lung cells and alveoli influence membrane synthesis and structure during breathing. However, despite advances in the understanding of lipid membrane phase behavior and mechanics of tissue, there is a critical knowledge gap regarding the response of lipid membranes to micromechanical forces. Most studies of lipid membrane mechanics use supported lipid bilayer systems missing the structural complexity of pulmonary lipids in alveolar membranes comprising multi-bilayer interconnected stacks. Here, we elucidate the collective response of the major component of pulmonary lipids to strain in the form of multi-bilayer stacks supported on flexible elastomer substrates. We utilize X-ray diffraction, scanning probe microscopy, confocal microscopy, and molecular dynamics simulation to show that lipid multilayered films both in gel and fluid states evolve structurally and mechanically in response to compression at multiple length scales. Specifically, compression leads to increased disorder of lipid alkyl chains comparable to the effect of cholesterol on gel phases as a direct result of the formation of nanoscale undulations in the lipid multilayers, also inducing buckling delamination and enhancing multi-bilayer alignment. We propose this cooperative short- and long-range reconfiguration of lipid multilayered films under compression constitutes a mechanism to accommodate stress and substrate topography. Our work raises fundamental insights regarding the adaptability of complex lipid membranes to mechanical stimuli. This is critical to several technologies requiring mechanically reconfigurable surfaces such as the development of electronic devices interfacing biological materials.

AbstractRecent discoveries of exotic physical phenomena, such as unconventional superconductivity in magic‐angle twisted bilayer graphene, dissipationless Dirac fermions in topological insulators, and quantum spin liquids, have triggered tremendous interest in quantum materials. The macroscopic revelation of quantum mechanical effects in quantum materials is associated with strong electron–electron correlations in the lattice, particularly where materials have reduced dimensionality. Owing to the strong correlations and confined geometry, altering atomic spacing and crystal symmetry via strain has emerged as an effective and versatile pathway for perturbing the subtle equilibrium of quantum states. This review highlights recent advances in strain‐tunable quantum phenomena and functionalities, with particular focus on low‐dimensional quantum materials. Experimental strategies for strain engineering are first discussed in terms of heterogeneity and elastic reconfigurability of strain distribution. The nontrivial quantum properties of several strain‐quantum coupled platforms, including 2D van der Waals materials and heterostructures, topological insulators, superconducting oxides, and metal halide perovskites, are next outlined, with current challenges and future opportunities in quantum straintronics followed. Overall, strain engineering of quantum phenomena and functionalities is a rich field for fundamental research of many‐body interactions and holds substantial promise for next‐generation electronics capable of ultrafast, dissipationless, and secure information processing and communications.