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Core Facilities and Labs

  • UofL Core Facilities
        THE JOHN J. HUSON AND MARIA MEEK HUSON NANOTECHNOLOGY CORE FACILITY   

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          (Room no. 106 - Belknap Research Building Map)
          The Huson Nanotechnology Core Facility houses a complete suite of Scanning Electron Microscopes and Atomic Force Microscopes for both imaging and creating novel nano-scale structures. The Facility (1200 sq. ft.) contains extensive nano- imaging, manipulation and probing equipment, together with specialized nanofabrication equipment. Faculty and students from around the University and State use the facilities in support of their research and educational activities. Many of these instruments in the facility are the first of their kind in Kentucky, and a few instruments are the first of their kind in the United States (Asylum Haptic AFM, Obducat Nanoimprinter).

          Major equipment items in the 3-D Nano-Imaging Laboratory include:
          Zeiss Supra 35 scanning electron microscope (SEM)           + accessories:
            EDAX-Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy
            Zyvex 5 nm resolution nanomanipulator and peltier stage
            Nabity e-beam lithography package and Raith beam blanker
          Zeiss EVO Extreme Variable Pressure (3000 Pa) scanning electron microscope
          Zeiss 1430 scanning electron microscope with Nabity lithography package
          Veeco M5 Atomic Force Microscope
          Veeco CP Atomic Force Microscope w/ scanning thermal AFM
          Veeco Nanoman II with most options incl. conductive AFM, nanoindentation
          Asylum MF3D AFM w/ 3D haptic controller and liquid cell
          WYKO NT-2000 White Light Scanning Interferometric Microscope
          Obducat Nanoimprinter with thermal and ultraviolet exposure options
          Tousimis Critical Point Dryer
           Woollam Variable Angle Spectroscopic Ellipsometer
           
          Contact: Joe Williams
          Director: Robert W. Cohn

        INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED MATERIALS AND SERVICE CENTER  

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          (Room no. 10 - Lutz Hall Map)
          UofL has over 5,000 sq. ft. of core user facilities dedicated to structure and composite analysis of nanomaterials. The facilities provide substantial capabilities to characterize materials in-house enabling rapid feedback of the analyses into the optimization of material growth processes.
          A brief list of our principal assets includes:
          High resolution electron microscopes (filed emission SEMs and TEMs),
          Composition analyses (EDS, EELS, XRD),
          Surface analytical tools (ESCA: XPS, LEED, Auger, STM/AFM),
          Optical spectroscopy (Raman/PL, tunable wavelength femtosecond laser),
           
          Contact: R. M. "Mark" Schreck & Rodica McCoy
          Director: Dr. Mahendra Sunkara

           

        MICRO/NANOTECHNOLOGY FABRICATION CORE FACILITY

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          (Room no. 121 - Belknap Research Building Map)
          The 10,000 sq. ft. microfabrication cleanroom facility and service center (with an additional 10,000 sq. ft. of support laboratory space) focuses on standard microfabrication processing, with an emphasis on MEMS fabrication by photolithographic processing, deep etching, back-to-front side aligned patterns, and glass-silicon wafer bonding. The facility includes rapid turnaround photo-mask fabrication using a submicron resolution Heidelberg Instruments laser pattern generator.
           
          Contact: Mark Crain
          Director: Kevin M. Walsh

        CONDENSED MATTER COMPUTATIONAL CORE FACILITY   

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          (Room no. 243 - Belknap Research Building Map)
          The twin theme of performing large scale simulations and predicting properties accurately at the microscopic level is the main research emphasis of the condensed matter theory group at the University of Louisville. In particular, the research focus of the group is on the structural, electronic, and vibrational properties of materials with reduced symmetry, such as clusters, surfaces, fractals, incommensurate systems, etc.
           
          Directors: Dr. Shi-Yu Wu & Dr. Chakram S. Jayanthi

  • UofL Labs
        ELECTROOPTICS LAB   

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          (Room no. 107 - Belknap Research Building Map)
          The Electro-optics Laboratory (1800 sq. ft.) is set up for the design, fabrication and experimental characterization of spatial light modulators, diffractive optics and experimental breadboard systems built from these components.  One 4’x10’ table is being used for femtosecond laser spectroscopy measurements by Dr. Alphenaar’s group of nanowires.  The lab also contains controlled dark room areas and wet benches for photographic holographic and photolithographic processing.
          Major equipment items include:
           Various scientific lasers (more than one dozen)
           Femtosecond laser spectroscopy system including cryostat to 4K and 4T magnet
           Three optical tables complete with a breadboarding supplies and components
           Olympus IX71 inverted microscope w/ cameras, laser trapping, piezostage
           Various liquid crystal spatial light modulators
           TI Digital Light Processing (DLP) evaluation kit
           Four million-pixel cooled CCD camera
           Various computers, video cameras and frame grabbers
           Scientific measurement and test instrumentation
           Sutter tapered fiber and pipette puller
           Highly stable motorized submicron and nanometer resolution translation stages
           PC laptop-based DSP vibration and sound analyzer

          Contact: Robert W. Cohn
           

         NANOELECTRONICS LAB   

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          (Room no. 108 Belknap Research Building Map)
                     The Nanoelectronics Lab is located in Belknap Research Building at UofL. Dealing with Nano Devices and NanoElectronics.
          Few of the major facilities located in the lab are listed below:
           Janis variable temperature cryostat 1.5-300K temperature range with 9T superconducting magnet.
           Leiden Cryogenics 500microwatt dilution refrigerator with 30mK base temperature and 9T superconducting magnet.
           Walker Scientific 1T electromagnet with optical access.
           Roper Scientific CCD imaging spectroscopy system.
           Janis Research optical flow cryostats with temperature control.
           Desert Cryogenics variable temperature probe station.
           Spectra-Physics ultra fast OPA laser system.
           Cascade Microtech electrical measurement probe station
          Contact: Dr. Bruce Alphenaar
           

        CVIP LAB   

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          (Room no. 5-7 Lutz Hall Map)
                     The Computer Vision and Image Processing Lab (CVIP) was established in 1994 at the University of Louisville and is committed to excellence in research and teaching. CVIP has two broad focus areas: computer vision and medical imaging. The laboratory hosts unique and modern hardware for imaging, computing and visualization. This hardware includes two supercomputers from SGI (an 40-CPU ONYX2-R12000 and an 24-CPU ONYX-10000), an ImmersaDesk from Fake-Space/Pyramids Systems, over 20 high-end graphics workstations, and various imaging hardware. The laboratory is housed in a modern state-of-the-art research building and is linked, via a high speed network, to the University's Medical Center.
          Contact: Dr. Aly Farag

        ADVANCED MATERIALS LAB  

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          The Advanced Materials Lab has a variety of chemical vapor deposition reactors.  Many of these reactors are built/assembled by students over last few years. We expect to add a new 4 inch substrate microwave CVD reactor in the next couple of years. The group's research focuses on the development of new processes based on chemical vapor deposition (CVD) for producing large single crystal quality wafers (Diamond and Gallium Nitride) and one-dimensional materials (nanowires and nanotubes) for a variety of inorganic materials.
          Research interests in advanced materials and nanomaterials can be broadly categorized as the following:
           Basic research on nucleation and growth mechanisms of crystals
           Large area single crystal quality film growth (Diamond and GaN)
           Process development for bulk production of 1-D nanomaterials
           Self-assembled processes for application-ready nanowire systems
           Unique product development efforts using nano-scale building blocks: Controlled Transdermal Drug Delivery Patch, Bio/Chemical Sensors, New Electrode Materials and Energy Conversion Devices.
          Contact: Dr. Mahendra K Sunkara

         VISION RESEARCH LABORATORY  
  • UK Facilities
        OPTICAL INFORMATION PROCESSING LABORATORY 

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          The Optical Information Processing Laboratory at the University of Kentucky encompasses resemblance areas of Morphological Transformation, Pattern Recognition, 3-D Data Acquisition, Optical Processing Algorithms for Pattern Recognition, Parameter Estimation and Bio Metrics.
          WEBSITE
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          Contact; Laurence G. Hassebrook

        LASER PROCESSING LABORATORY 

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          The Laser Processing Laboratory at the University of Kentucky uses short pulses of ultraviolet wavelength energy to modify a wide variety of materials. Modification includes material removal by ablation, surface modification by heating, and deposition by laser assisted chemical vapor deposition. The majority of the projects in the lab have been geared toward electronic packaging, specifically, metallization of aluminum nitride. This work continues under an NSF CAREER award which continues work started under an NSF Research Initiation Award. A new area of research is underway to deposit chemical sensor films as part of a larger DARPA contract on MEMS Based Chemical Sensing Systems. Several other projects use the laser system to micromachine films and substrates for non-microelectronic applications.
          The laboratory facilities include:
          MPB PSX-100 excimer laser,
          Beam delivery system,
          Variable attenuator,
          Stepper motor controlled XY stages,
          Vacuum chamber, in-line vision system,
          FastCAD software, and
          PC based control of the laser firing and XY stages.
          A Tencor Alpha-Step 500 stylus profilometer is also available to measure dimensions of patterned films and micromachined features.

          The intent of the Laser Processing Laboratory is to use controlled laser energy as a tool for removing, modifying, and depositing materials to make useful devices. Using the laser as a point source or exposing a pattern through a mask allows these processes to be area specific, rather than depositing a blanket coating and patterning by etching. In this way, the laser processes produce less waste and can be adapted for prototype (research) scale products.
           
          Janet K. Lumpp, Laboratory Director

        NANOMATERIALS FACILITY 

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          Since research into molecular electronics is multidisciplinary many shared facilities are utilized. This gives students a great opportunity to learn about many techniques as well as flexibility in research directions
          Within the group laboratory there are Solvent glove box with spin coating and electrochemical station, Schlink line and standard synthetic chemistry equipment, 3-zone oxidation and annealing furnace, Low temperature with applied magnetic field transport measurement station, Probe Station, Wire Bonder, Vacuum Oven, and Student Computers
           
          Contact: Bruce Hinds

        MICROELECTRONICS ASSEMBLY LABORATORY