This year the Department of Physics & Astronomy has received several major equipment donations which will provide the basis for experiments in the new MS-CES program, undergraduate research, senior design projects and support for new faculty research. We are very fortunate to have this level of support from members of the scientific community.

Photo Luminescence Mapping system (PLM)
This donation, by Lumileds Lighting, was arranged by Dr. Bill Imler. The PLM probes a semiconductor wafer with a 514-nm argon laser. It then collects the photoluminescence from the material (InGaAs or InGaP or others). By translating the wafer with an x-y motion control system and reading the spectrum at each point, the custom software designed by Dr. Imler makes a map of the emission vs. spatial position. By testing the raw wafers for their color, efficiency and spatial uniformity, the system is used for process control and quality control. Dr. Imler designed and built the instrument, which has a cooled photon counting detection system, optical table and high throughput spectrometer. Lumileds, a developer of high power and white light emitting diodes, has replaced it with a unit from BioRad which cost over $250,000.

Diode Pumped Frequency Doubled YAG lasers
Five DPSS lasers were donated by Pacific Scientific Instruments through its principal scientist, Dr. Richard DeFreez (’80). These tiny lasers may actually replace the argon laser from the PLM system described above. Solid state lasers with diode pumps are much more efficient than ion lasers. A 980-nm laser diode end pumps an NdYVO4 doped YAG crystal which is then frequency doubled from 1064 nm to 532 nm (green) with a barium borate non-linear, second harmonic generating optical element. These lasers can be used for fluorescent pumps and fiber optic experiments.

Auger Spectrometer
This beautiful instrument was donated by Optical Coating Laboratory, Inc. (OCLI) a JDS Uniphase company, thanks to Dr. Said Mansour. It is an all-stainless ultra-high vacuum system with ion and electron beams and a secondary (Auger) electron detector, that can analyze thin films or bulk materials for their elemental composition. It has both turbomolecular and cryo-ion pumping systems! This is the nicest vacuum system we have ever had here, and I am looking forward to getting it up and running in the new analytical lab facilities now under construction in Salazar Hall for the MS-CES program. I would especially like to thank Professors Saeid Rahimi and Duncan Poland for their work in arranging these donations and am very grateful to the donors for supporting science at Sonoma State.