Raman spectroscopy is a vibrational spectroscopy technique, traditionally used to identify the molecular “fingerprint” to help identify chemical structures. The technique is also widely used in the field of 2D materials and can provide additional information about material properties such as crystal orientation or internal stresses.

Our current range of Raman microscopy tools can be found in our SPID Facility.

One of the less common techniques available, UPS offers the ability to measure molecular orbital energies. The technique is extremely surface sensitive and is often used to analyze adsorbed species and their orientation on a surface.

Our current range of UPS tools can be found on our Keck-II Facility.

FTIR is a powerful and widely applicable vibrational spectroscopy technique to study chemical bonding and identify molecular structures. The technique can be applied to liquid, solid or gaseous samples and our facilities are also equipped with FTIR microscopy to analyze small specimens or areas of interest.

Our current range of FTIR tools can be found in our Keck-II Facility.

Somewhat related techniques, these tools can both be used to measure thin film thickness. Reflectometry is a simpler and more convenient technique, but spectroscopic ellipsometry is superior in analysis of very thin films or complicated film stacks. These techniques can also be applied to measure optical constants for new materials.

Our current range of ellipsometery and reflectometry tools can be found:

Keck-II
NUFAB
PNF 

DLS techniques can be used to measure particle size distributions in solution. The technique can be applied to various types of particles and suspensions from proteins and polymers to inorganic particles. The same DLS systems can also often be used to measure zeta potential.

Our current range of DLS  tools can be found in our Keck-II and ANTEC Facilties.

Contact angle measurement is used to analyze the hydrophilicity or wetting characteristics of a surface. This can be used to understand the properties of a coating, exposure of a surface to contamination or effectiveness of a surface treatment.

Our current range of contact angle measurement tools can be found in our NUFAB Facility.