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Microscopy for Instruction and Research

CRISP has access to a diverse and powerful assembly of microscopy facilities, with laboratories at all three CRISP locations, Yale and Southern Connecticut State Universities and Brookhaven National Laboratory. Brookhaven's Center for Advanced Electron Microscopy combines world-class instrumentation with a team of leading materials scientists, providing a unique resource for CRISP. Facilities at Yale include Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), in addition to the ongoing development within CRISP of atomic resolution non-contact AFM and magnetic AFM.

The NanoCharacterization Facility located at SCSU provides nanoscale microscopy and microanalysis of the elemental composition of materials. This facility is equipped for advanced materials research as well as for education and outreach and is staffed by highly skilled, professional electron microscopists.

SCSU's microscopy instrumentation includes AFM, SEM and TEM equipped with scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM). X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) is available on both SEM and TEM. Advanced light microscopy (LM) is also available.

A wide range of sample preparation instrumentation enables vacuum evaporative and sputter coating for SEM and low-angle/low-voltage ion milling for TEM. Sophisticated polishing tools, an ultramicrotome, and ancillary instrumentation are also available. These tools precisely and reproducibly permit routine preparation of materials for EM and AFM observation. The facility also provides an array of data and image processing software.

Instructional Molecular Beam Epitaxy

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MBE workshop at Yale

Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) technology, widely used for making commercial electronic devices, is now an appropriate technique to include in undergraduate courses and teacher training. The Teaching MBE Facility at Yale is used to train students in the growth of epitaxial complex oxide materials. It is also used in conjunction with the Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) Teaching Facility at SCSU, low-temperature transport measurements, and solid-state device characterization to support graduate and undergraduate student course work, high school teacher training, and MRSEC outreach. Participants will prepare oxide materials by MBE at Yale and then use SPM and TEM at SCSU for atomic-scale visualization of the films. The Teaching MBE Facility will be reserved exclusively for teaching and outreach (CRISP has several other oxide growth systems for research) and will be designed and built for educational purposes. For example, safety interlocks and ease of use will be primary considerations for this facility.

Research Facilities

CRISP has a variety of experimental facilities that are, or soon will be, available to CRISP researchers and others. These include a SQUID magnetometer for measurement of the magnetic properties of thin films; non-contact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM) for topographic and surface force measurements on both conducting and insulating materials; a low-temperature cryostat for electronic transport measurements of conducting oxides and oxide devices; test equipment for measuring ferroelectric properties of thin films; scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and conventional AFM; scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM, TEM) and scanning TEM (STEM); and a well equipped solid-state device characterization laboratory. Mechanisms are being developed for use of this equipment by researchers from other institutions who could benefit from collaboration with CRISP personnel.