AFRL Donates Advanced Materials Analysis System to Academia

  • Published
  • By Materials & Manufacturing Directorate
  • AFRL/ML
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  Under an Educational Partnership Agreement (EPA), AFRL donated a surplus advanced materials analysis system to the Howard University Nanoscale Science and Engineering Facility (HNF). Capable of analyzing the surface and in-depth composition of materials with precision accuracy, the Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) system enables students, faculty, and other researchers using the facility to identify and quantify various types of materials, including impurities, contaminants, and dopants (materials added to crystals to alter their physical properties). AFRL's advanced SIMS technology thus greatly enhances the university's capacity to analyze materials; increases the institution's research and development potential; and expands educational opportunities in science, mathematics, and engineering.

SIMS is a highly sophisticated analytical technique that employs a focused primary ion beam to bombard a material sample, along with a mass spectrometer to identify and measure the secondary ions ejected from the sample. The technology's high sensitivity and high elemental selectivity provide the materials and manufacturing research community with the much-needed capability for performing three-dimensional, elemental analysis of a material's structure. The technology has several aerospace applications, including the identification and quantification of semiconductors, metals (including aircraft corrosion samples), dielectrics, coatings, thin films, and a number of other materials. Other applications of the SIMS technology include education and research, chemical analysis of surfaces and distribution mapping of species, contamination analysis of thin films and surfaces, surface coating continuity monitoring, failure analysis of thin film devices, and bioactive surfaces development. These application areas are important to the Air Force, industry, and academia.

The SIMS system donated to Howard University comprises a surface analysis and materials characterization instrument that combines Dynamic SIMS with Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES) and depth profiling capabilities. The ultra-high-vacuum instrument is for analyzing surface and in-depth compositional impurities (via SIMS), as well as determining the major elements in solid samples (via AES). This instrumentation's conception and development occurred under the leadership of Mr. Jim Solomon, who used it to support AFRL's mission for more than 2 decades. The EPA transpired through the leadership of AFRL's senior technologist in electronic materials, Dr. William C. Mitchel, and onsite SIMS expert, Dr. Howard E. Smith, and the involvement of Professor Gary L. Harris, HNF director.