Prof. John E. Crowell, (in collaboration with Dieter H. Hellmoldt of Western Digital Corp.) Dept. of Chemistry & Biochemistry, will explore growth methods for depositing metals and metal oxides using Chemical Vapor Deposition and Molecular Beam Epitaxy. They will explore the structural and electronic properties of the deposited films in order to characterize the nature of the material grown, and will explore the kinetics and mechanism of the growth process. The techniques used for materials characterization will include x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) for determination of oxidation states, High Resolution Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (HREELS) for characterization of the phonon and plasmon electronic structure of the oxides, and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) for stoichiometry and compositional analysis. Analysis of the deposition and growth processes will be performed using Reflection-Absorption Infrared Spectroscopy (RAIRS) and Temperature Programmed Desorption Mass Spectrometry (TPD); both methods will provide mechanistic aspects to be determined. Characterization of the deposited film nanostructure will be performed using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM).