The Laboratory for Plasma Processing of Materials in the Energy Research Facility features an array of state-of-the-art tools for plasma-based etching, synthesis or modification of materials. The tool set available in the laboratory includes plasma reactors, instruments that characterize the plasma or the surfaces of plasma-treated materials, and measurement tools that evaluate the crucial variables that determine the ultimate usefulness of the materials and structures thus produced. The available plasma reactors include devices for producing either highly ionized plasmas (fraction of charged particles in the percentage range) or reactors where the charged particle density is negligible but reactive atoms or molecular radicals formed in a remote plasma chamber interact with the material to be modified. A great deal of the work in the laboratory is aimed at establishing the plasma processing science required for optimal plasma approaches to advanced materials processing and articulating models that may be used to predict the performance of important plasma processes.

The images shown below provide views of researchers in the plasma processing laboratory at work.

Dr. Xi Li is working on a multi- chamber vacuum system used for plasma processing of materials. A ultra-high vacuum sample transfer system connects various plasma devices with a multi-technique surface analysis system and with each other.

This image shows graduate student Li Ling performing a plasma process in an inductively coupled plasma processing tool featuring numerous in-situ diagnostic techniques.

Graduate student Xuefeng Hua and visitor Masanaga Fukasawa (SONY Corp.) perform surface analysis of plasma-processed material.