Staib Instruments, Inc. — Department of Defense STTR Phase II: A13A-T011

Description

The area of thin film growth has progressed rapidly, producing many high performance new materials which require accuracy of their atomic composition to perform as expected. Any method to provide real time in situ information about the elemental composition of the growing surface is highly valuable for these new, complicated materials. Utilizing a new instrument design, the Phase I project team proved the viability of the Auger Probe, successfully monitoring in situ the elemental composition during MBE growth without interrupting the growth process. The Probe performed dependably, providing insight to the dynamic evolution of the surface. The goal of Phase II is to complete the Probe system, providing the growth community with a powerful analytical tool for dynamic real time characterization and control of growth. The efforts required would be to improve the Probe design, quantify the data with a new model reflecting the layer-by-layer growth of the surface, develop the required algorithms and software programs to make the results almost instantly available to the user, and expand system functionality. The resulting Probe system could be widely used in many fields of analytical study of surfaces and interfaces as a in-situ, real-time tool for many different deposition systems.