CAM Facilities

The Center for Advanced Materials (CAM) at the University of Houston has extensive facilities for the growth and processing of thin film materials and devices. This includes two dedicated epitaxial growth systems for molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and chemical beam epitaxy (CBE) interconnected by load lock systems allowing for insert and transfer of samples from chamber to chamber. It has two pulsed laser deposition systems for thin film deposition, three MOCVD systems for oxide film processing, an rf-sputtering system for oxide materials deposition, and a number of systems dedicated to lithographic patterning including: two thermal evaporators dedicated to metal deposition, two e-beam evaporators, a barrel etchers/ashers, a profilometer and a wire bonder along with metallurgical microscopes. There are also two mask aligners and a spinner. Additional systems used in processing include an ion mill, a Reactive Ion Etching (RIE) systems and a Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PECVD) system.

CAM has a variety of characterization tools to analyze the advanced materials. Characterization tools include Hall mobility, I-V and C-V, polarization measurement, dielectric constant measurement, photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy systems covering the range of UV to the mid IR, and temperatures from 2K to 500K, and a thermogravometic system. CAM has an ellipsometer and thin film profilometer for film thickness characterization. CAM also has a spectral response and solar simulator (100K to 400K temperature range) to characterize optical response, and an IR characterization system with calibrated IR source and monochrometer for IR response of materials. CAM has a high-resolution x-ray diffractometer with wafer mapping capabilities for physical characterization of the thin film structures, and two Auger Electron Spectrometers and one X-ray Photoelectron Spectrometers for surface analysis, a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS), and access to transmission electron microscopy.