Facilities

The Leroy-Eyring Center for Solid State Science:

CSSS provides a wide range of laboratory user-fee based facilities for the synthesis, processing and characterization of advanced materials.  A large number of instruments are available in three facilities:

1) The John M. Cowley Center for High Resolution Microscopy houses 8 Transmission Electron Microscopes and 3 Scanning Electron Microscopes for microstructural and chemical analysis. A Focused Ion Beam system is also available that can etch and deposit materials with nanometer-scale resolution.

2) The Ion Beam Facility facilitates materials analysis using Rutherford BackScattering (RBS), Proton Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE), channeling spectroscopy and hydrogen content analysis for compositional and structural determination of materials. It combines the advantages of non-destructive and standardless analysis of the surface and near surface regions (0-2 microns) of solids. It is most advantageously applied to analysis problems where elemental composition and depth or thickness information are needed. A variation of RBS is ion channeling which can locate the lattice locations of impurities or dopants (substitutional vs. interstitial lattice sites).

3) The Goldwater facilities offer a wide range of synthesis, processing and characterization facilities. Advanced surface analysis capabilities include Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS), Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES), X-ray Photoemission Spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Photoluminescence (PL). The laboratory also includes advanced methods for (1) the synthesis of thin film and bulk materials, (2) thermal analysis, and (3) thermal processing. 
We propose to request MRSEC support for the following additional facilities: a new SEM with high resolution, low temperature, CL and EBIC capabilities, X-ray topography, a PPMS for various transport measurements, and DLTS.

The Center for Solid State Electronics Research:

CSSER has over 30,000 sq. ft. of clean-room space that houses a complete microfabrication facility including capabilities for mask making, optical, ion and electron lithography, metallization, dielectric deposition and thermal processing furnaces. This facility also contains characterization capabilities including photoluminescence, analytical scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning Auger electron spectroscopy, ultra low temperature electrical and optical measurement stations, and high speed device testing.

High Performing Computation Initiative:

HPCI computational facilities at ASU are substantial. Its main machine, a 1,060 processor system, is available at low-to-no cost to Science and Engineering faculty at ASU. It will be used for most of the calculations in this project.
The Flexible Display Center and the Advanced Photovoltaics Center at ASU are unique partnerships among universities, government laboratories, and industry focused on developing flexible displays and photovoltaics.  Both Centers will collaborate strongly with this MRSEC to achieve the stated goals and to allow the scientific findings of this MRSEC to be incorporated and tested in a device setting.  The photovoltaic facilities at ASU are acknowledged nationally and internationally for their reliability and accuracy.  The Centers are fully equipped with state-of-art research facilities as well as manufacturing capabilities.
The R&D facilities include:
1) unique materials printing and characterization capabilities,
2) materials and device development facilities,
3) multimode and nanolithography facility,
4) inorganic, organic, and hybrid materials deposition (vacuum and liquid based) facilities, and
5) device testing facilities (including an NREL calibrated and a state-of-the-art quantum efficiency measurement facility).
ASU Chemistry Department user facilities include Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Electron Paramagnetic Resonance, and differential scanning calorimetry capabilities.

National Renewable Energy Lab:

NREL is equipped with a large array of both deposition and characterization tools. Additionally, NREL has tremendous expertise in photovoltaic device characterization, and finished devices that can be evaluated using light and dark current-voltage measurements, quantum efficiency, and other techniques.