SPbU research equipment becoming more available
St Petersburg University, to make its research equipment more available, are creating a list of research equipment and technologies developed by SPbU scientists.
This list features as many as 400 pieces of equipment and technologies. Among them is Nanolab in the Resource Centre for Physical Methods of Surface Investigation. Its mock-up was introduced at the exhibition of the research advances for SPbU’s anniversary.
The research modular platform Nanolab consists of several interconnected ultrahigh vacuum modules including a module of photoelectron spectroscopy and a scanning probe microscope. Nanolab has no equals in the world. It is used for purification and metal deposition and offers a full range of services to work with layered structures, single- and polycrystal films. Among the key objects under study is graphene, topological insulators, and various structures based on the transition, rare-earth and other metals.
Nanolab has an open architecture that enables to incorporate additional equipment for specific purposes. The central chamber (a robot-distributor) is surrounded by the flangs that can integrate new modules with additional functions via vacuum connection elements. For example, after the modular platform was installed and put into operation, a new module for thin-film magnetization was added.
Nanolab is made from stainless non-magnetic steel, and the pressure in the main modules where you can prepare samples and measure them, is about 110-10 mbar. These conditions are similar to those in the outer space, which makes it possible to have a clean, without extraneous gases or impurities, surface during the experiments.