This Major Resesarch Instrumentation (MRI) grant provides funding for the aquisition of a next generation pulsed laser deposition system for thin film and nanomaterials research. The pulsed laser deposition system will provide immediate and significant boost to the research projects focused on the development of metallic and ceramic biomaterials for biomedical implant applications, synthesis of self-assembled magnetic nanoparticles for data storage devices, and synthesis of high-temperature superconducting thin films embedded with nanoparticles for superconductive electronics. The first research area is directly related to the Engineering Research Center on Revolutionizing Metallic Biomaterials funded by the National Science Foundation in 2008 at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. The uniqueness of the proposed deposition system lies in the provision for laser ablation and direct current magnetron sputtering in the same chamber and capabilities of in situ diagnosis of species present in the plasma by an optical emission spectroscopy system and in situ structural characterization of thin film and nanostructured materials by a reflection high energy electron diffraction system.
The instrumentation will be used directly in a hands-on fashion by both graduate and undergraduate students. It will also be incorporated into courses on thin film technology and nanoscience and nanoengineering offered currently at graduate as well as undergraduate levels in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. Due to simplicity of operation of pulsed laser deposition system and the visual attractiveness of laser plume and red glow of the substrate heating platform, the facility will also be used for the education and outreach activities for elementary, middle, and high school students and teachers visiting the campus.
A state-of-the art thin film laboratory has been established at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University using the funds received from the NSF-MRI program and the NCAT University cost-math. The laboratory houses uniquely designed two vacuum chambers with capabilities of pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and magnetron sputtering in the same chamber. The advantage of an integrated chamber lies in the overcoming of the most fundamental disadvantage of PLD technique in the name of the production of macroscopic ejects during the ablation process particularly for metal target materials with high thermal conductivity while retaining the conventional advantages of a PLD method. The advantage of PLD process is the fast response, energetic evaporants, and congruent evaporation. Since PLD can transfer the composition of the target to the deposited film, it can successfully be used in the fabrication of complex alloys whose constituents can have vapor pressures that differ by 106. The deposition chambers are interfaced with two in situ diagnostic instruments: (a) Reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) and (b) Optical emission spectrometer. The combination of these two diagnostic techniques can provide a better understanding of the PLD and sputtering processes because optical emission spectroscopy is capable of giving information about the species present in laser plasma, while RHEED allows the characterization of films right during their formation. The acquisition of state-of-the-art pulsed laser deposition system with sputtering has greatly enhanced the capabilities of the NCAT to conduct cutting edge research in rapidly developing multi-disciplinary field of advanced materials processing, nanoscience, and nanoengineering. We expect the new facility to attract more external funding, create more research-driven faculty-students projects, and sufficiently increase student participation in the research and training. The facility is also used as an education tool. The instrument is being used directly in a "hands-on" fashion by students, with help available from the facility manager. This instrument and the results obtained using the instrumentation will be incorporated into academic programs that provide students with important educational and research training experiences.
