Condensed matter experimentalists often need to prepare nanoscale thickness films of a variety of materials. One approach is to use "physical vapor deposition" - in a good vacuum, a material of interest is heated to the point where it has some nonzero vapor pressure, and that vapor collides with a substrate of interest and sticks, building up the film.
One way to heat source material is with a high voltage electron beam, the kind of thing that used to be used at lower intensities to excite the phosphors on old-style
cathode ray tube displays.
My Edwards Auto306 4-pocket e-beam system is really starting to show its age. It's been a great workhorse for quick things that don't require the cleanroom. Does anyone out there have recommendations for a system (as inexpensive as possible of course) with similar capabilities, or a vendor you like for such things?
https://www.leybold.com/univex/#!index.php
ReplyDeleteWorth every dime.
Thanks, Amit. Leybold does make nice gadgets. Out of curiosity, how many dimes are we talking about? :-)
ReplyDeleteI got the predecessor to this about a decade ago:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mbraun.com/products/coating-equipment/vacuum-deposition/mb-ecovap
The software was problematic, the hardware was fine, and it was about 20% less than a Lesker system at the time. Mine was a beta version, and presumably the software issues are better.