Materials Characterization Facility – UC San Diego Materials Research Science and Engineering Center

Dedicated to materials characterization, assays, and sample processing, the UC San Diego MRSEC-MCF is a user and service facility associated with the UC San Diego Materials Research Science and Engineering Center, funded by the National Science Foundation. We serve both internal (UC San Diego) and external (companies, other for-profit or non-profit organizations) users. We are a member of the Materials Research Facilities Network, a nationwide partnership of Shared Experimental Facilities supported by the National Science Foundation’s Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSECs).

Location: We are located on the Main Campus of the University of California, San Diego

Facility offices: Pacific Hall, room 4140
Instrumentation is housed in the MRSEC facilities rooms on the 4th floor of Pacific Hall. Some instruments are housed in other locations on campus. See "Details and rates" sections below for the location of each individual instrument.

Training and Access to the equipment in the facility:

Training and access to the facility are available to the UC San Diego internal users through a departmental recharge. Organizations and companies external to UC San Diego can gain access to the facility via contract or a fee-for-use arrangement. Details on instruments and the billing rates are given for each of the instruments listed below in their sub-page. External (non-UC San Diego) users must fill out a Service Agreement and a Waiver of Liability. For further help on setting up access, scheduling a training, an external user contract or a fee-for-use arrangement, please contact the Facility Manager.

The facility operates under three modalities:

(1) samples can be submitted for analysis by the facility staff (Consultation-non-training fee is applied in addition to instrument usage fee)
(2) user trainees can run samples under the guidance of facility staff (Consultation-Training fee is applied in addition to instrument usage fee)
(3) trained users can sign up for the instrument and run their own samples (instrument usage fee only).

For modality (1), samples from third parties are received and returned under a material transfer agreement (contact the Facility Manager). For modality (3), users must first be trained and checked out on an instrument by the facility staff (modality 2). Thus there is an additional charge if a staff member is involved in either running of samples or training of a user. Alternatively, the UC San Diego MRSEC RIMSE program held each summer provides an immersive introduction and training on most of the available instrumentation in this facility. Additional facilities in support of materials fabrication and characterization (and nanotechnology in particular) are available in UCSD's San Diego Nanotechnology Infrastructure (SDNI).

Facility Manager: Ricardo De Luna

Click here to RESERVE AN INSTRUMENT OR A TRAINING ACTIVITY

Optical Spectrometers (Absorbance, Specular Reflectance, Optical Interference, Diffuse Reflectance, Fluorescence, Photoluminescence)

The facility has an extensive collection of optical spectrometers that can be configured to measure a wide range of optical properties of materials. The suite includes:

Thermo Scientific™ Nano-Drop 2000™ for quantifying protein, DNA, RNA, and small molecule concentrations
Quantaurus-QY™ C11347 for absolute photoluminescence quantum yields and excitation-emission matrix (EEM) spectra from solid or liquid samples
Ocean Optics™ USB-4000™ and USB-2000™ CCD spectrometers for absorbance and reflectance measurements
Ocean Optics™ QEPro™ and QE65000™ thermoelectrically cooled CCD spectrometers for low-light applications such as photoluminescence and fluorescence measurements
ANDOR iSTAR 334T high-speed thermoelectrically cooled intensified CCD (iCCD) camera for time-gated photoluminescence spectroscopy measurements at a temporal resolution of 8 nanoseconds
ThorLabs™ APD430x adjustable gain avalanche photodetectors (APD) with 4-stage 2x pre-amplifiers and storage oscilloscope for single-element, single-wavelength detection with a temporal resolution of 50 nanoseconds.

Pulsed light sources include:

Horiba™ DeltaDiode 375nm picosecond pulsed laser excitation source
Oxxius LBX-405nm laser excitation source.

Steady-state excitation sources include various blue (405, 450, 480nm) and UV (365, 370, 385nm) light-emitting diodes (for PL) and broadband deuterium-halogen and tungsten-halogen continuous light sources (for absorbance or spectral reflectance measurements).

Various sample holders can accommodate liquid, solid, and thin film samples. The detection optics can be focused to < 1mm spot size. Most of the spectrometers are coupled with fiber optic attachments, microscope optics, and light sources for acquisition of optical absorbance, optical reflectance, and Fabry-Perot interference data. Click on the links above for individual experiments, descriptions, and rates.

Porosimetry-Gas Sorption Analyzer (BET)

Anton Paar™ Quantachrome autosorbIQ automated gas sorption analyzer for measurement of chemisorption (hydrogen, methane, other reactive gases) and physisorption (nitrogen) processes. The physisorption mode allows acquisition of data to determine surface area (via BET analysis of the isotherm), average pore size (via BJH or DFT isotherm models), and pore volume (via BJH or DFT isotherm models) on non-porous, mesoporous, and microporous materials. Featuring an extended range physisorption and chemisorption pressure transducer, system is capable of determining specific surface areas below 0.01 m²/g, active areas, pore volumes, and pore size distributions down to 0.35 nm in solid porous samples. Unit has 4 degas and 3 analysis ports for physisorption measurements on multiple samples simultaneously. Note sample degas and isotherm acquisition can require several hours of instrument time per run. Mesopore samples usually require ~4hrs total; micropore samples generally require longer degas times and so can require up to 18h of analysis time. The mass of sample needed for analysis depends on its surface area; recommended total surface area for a surface area measurement is 2 m² and for a pore size measurement it is 10 m². So for example if your sample has a specific surface area of 200 m²/g, it will require ~50 mg of material for a good analysis. The facility also maintains the older and slower Micromeritics™ ASAP 2020 gas adsorption/surface area measurement apparatus.

SOP

Hourly Rate: UC Users: $25 // non-UC Users: $36.25

Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM, benchtop)

Phenom G6 Pro SEM from nanoScience Instruments™ (Thermo Fisher™) with a cesium hexaboride source. This benchtop instrument is for users who do not need the very high resolution of the state-of-the-art SEM and TEM instruments available at the UCSD Nano-3 facility. Situated between confocal optical microscopy and these high-end electron microscopes in terms of resolution, the instrument provides a user-friendly entry point for persons not familiar with electron microscopy. Back-scattered detection (BSD), secondary electron detection (SED), or mixed detection are available. Magnification range of 160-350,000x. A single-stub stage supports sample sizes up to 25mm x 35 mm. Sample introduction is very rapid: 18 seconds between initial pump-down and image acquisition. A sample charging reduction stage is available (BSD mode) for samples that cannot be sputter coated. A Luxor Sputter Coater is also available, for inverted coating (argon atmosphere) of up to 7 sample stubs with platinum layers of thickness 1-100nm to reduce charging in the electron beam. Can be used for sample drying as well. UC users: $15/coating run; Non UC users: $21.75/coating run. Up to 7 sample stubs can be included in a single coating run.
SOP

Hourly Rate: UC Users: $55 // non-UC Users: $79.75

Thermogravimetric Analyzer/Differential Scanning Calorimeter with Mass Spectral Evolved Gas Analyzer (TGA-DSC-MS)

TA Instruments™ Discovery SDT 650™ simultaneous DSC/TGA. An MKS Cirrus 3 mass spectral analyzer is attached, allowing measurement of evolved gases up to 300 amu. Equipped with autosampler robot to load up to 30 samples. Can use nitrogen, oxygen, or air ambients. There is an additional charge for sample pans. Sample pans are re-usable but many users prefer to have their own dedicated pan to avoid possible cross-contamination from other users: charge for TGA sample pan for UC users: $16/pan; Non UC users: $21/pan

SOP

Hourly Rate: UC Users: $30 // non-UC Users: $43.50

Can't find what you need here? There are several other major user facilities on the UC San Diego campus that provide instrumentation relevant to materials characterization:

Scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), scanning tunneling microscope (STM), atomic force microscope (AFM) are available at the UC San Diego Nano3 facility. Various other semiconductor characterization and clean-room tools such as e-beam and photo-lithography are available. Nano3 is the main facility of the San Diego Nanotechnology Infrastructure (SDNI), which is one of 16 nation-wide sites of the NSF-supported National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI).

X-Ray Powder Diffractometer (Powder XRD) Bruker D8 Advance powder diffractometer using Cu Kα (1.5418 Å) radiation (40 kV, 40 mA). This instrument is managed by the UCSD Crystallography Facility. It also manages several single-crystal diffractometers. Several additional powder XRD instruments are available via recharge at the San Diego Nanotechnology Infrastructure (SDNI).

Small Angle X-ray Scattering/Wide Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS/WAXS) is available through via recharge through the San Diego Nanotechnology Infrastructure (SDNI).

MRSEC Materials Characterization Facility (MCF)

Location: We are located on the Main Campus of the University of California, San Diego

Training and Access to the equipment in the facility:

The facility operates under three modalities:

Facility Manager: Ricardo De Luna

Facility Funding Acknowledgement:

The following equipment is available on a recharge basis:

Furnaces and Ovens

Optical Spectrometers (Absorbance, Specular Reflectance, Optical Interference, Diffuse Reflectance, Fluorescence, Photoluminescence)

Porosimetry-Gas Sorption Analyzer (BET)

Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM)

Raman microscopes

Rheometer

Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM, benchtop)

Spin Coater

Thermogravimetric Analyzer/Differential Scanning Calorimeter with Mass Spectral Evolved Gas Analyzer (TGA-DSC-MS)

Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography (UHPLC)

Consultation/Training

**Consultation-non-training

Can't find what you need here? There are several other major user facilities on the UC San Diego campus that provide instrumentation relevant to materials characterization: