Surfaces, interfaces, and reduced dimensional systems have been a major focus in condensed matter physics over the past thirty five years because new structures, phases, and phenomena emerge with the presence of a surface changes the interaction between an atom and its neighbors. With the support of a portion of a $400K grant to the Department of Physics from the W. M. Keck Foundation, a surface physics signature laboratory is being developed to complement the existing laser and computational laboratories. The laboratory is equipped with scanning tunneling and atomic force microscopes that are used in laboratory exercises at all levels of the curriculum.
In addition to the scanning probe microscopy there are a several experiments that explore three-dimensional structures using x-ray diffraction.
| 4 | Nanosurf Easyscan Scanning Tunneling Microscopes |
| 2 | Nanosurf E-line Atomic Force Microscopes |
| 4 | Personal Computers to run the instruments |
| 1 | Vibration Isolation Stage for AFM |
| 4 | Granite Slab Isolation pads for STMs |
| 24 | Highly Oriented Pyrolytic Graphite Substrates for experiments |
| 2 | Evaporated Gold Samples |
| 1 | Gold on Mica sample |
| 1 | TaS_2 Charge Density Wave Sample |
| 1 | MoS_2 Sample |
| 1 | TiS_2 Sample |
| 1 | Thermal Evaporator for Metal Films |
| Pt/Ir and W wire for STM Tips | |
| Silicon Cantilever Tips for AFM |
The surface physics laboratory has had impact at all levels of the Lawrence Curriculum. The scanning tunneling microscopes are used as one major activity in the Lawrence physics recruiting workshop. For the past two years we have used the scanning tunneling microscope to introduce the physics of quantum tunneling to our freshman modern physics students in the laboratory portion of the course. This year, both the scanning tunneling microscopes and the atomic force microscopes were used in a two week block of an interdisciplinary course, Introduction to Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, team taught by Professor Collett along with Professors Karen Nordell and David Hall of the Department of Chemistry. Both kinds of scanning probe microscopes are used in our junior advanced laboratory course. In addition, two seniors have used the laboratory as the basis of senior capstone projects.