Shared Facilities

This facility is operated jointly with the JFI and provides infrastructure support for computation and networking, centralized services such as multi-platform file sharing, e-mail, web hosting and printing for the MRSEC, as well as Macintosh, Windows and UNIX (Linux, Solaris, AIX, HP/UX and IRIX) operating system support for ~80 Unix/Linux- and ~140 Mac/Windows-based machines in MRSEC labs throughout the Research Institutes. Several Silicon Graphics and Sun workstations, Power Macs and Linux PCs, and a high-speed laser printer are maintained in a dedicated computer room for MRSEC members and their visitors.

The Low-Temperature Laboratory operates a CTI1400 helium liquefier and maintains a Linde TL6000 liquid nitrogen tank of 24,000 liter capacity, a recovery system for helium, and centralized pumping stations for cryogenic experiments. Cryogenic liquids are sold to MRSEC members and non-members to recover production and storage costs. The lab oversees the use of a Quantum Design SQUID magnetometer and a top-loading dilution refrigerator, and makes available leak detectors to MRSEC members. The staff designs and constructs equipment (gas handling systems, cryogenic liquid fill devices & transfer tubes, and custom racks for experiments), provides technical consulting and instructs students in cryogenic techniques.

The facility consists of portable equipment to be signed out by MRSEC members. This equipment includes an image processing cart with a commercial, high-end VCR and monitor, controlled by a PC with frame grabber and extensive software for image manipulation. Also available is a Kodak Motion Corder video camera, able to acquire images at speeds of up to 10,000 frames/second and to download the data to either video-tape or computer. We have just purchased a new fast camera from Vision Research, Phantom v7.0, which can take photographs at a rate of up to 160,000 frames per second.

Our Microfluidics Facility has been completed. Recent work included renovation of the room, purchase of a Leica motorized fluorescent microscope with Metamorph control and analysis station, and acquisition of pumping equipment. A station for measurements of surface tensions at liquid-liquid interfaces has been designed and built. The microfluidics facility now includes equipment dedicated to characterization and operation of microfluidic channels and networks. This includes equipment for measuring fluid viscosities, liquid/liquid and liquid/surface interfacial energies, as well as set-ups for pressure-driven fluid pumping. Quantitative fluorescence optical measurements of millisecond kinetics on microfluidic chips are possible with a high-numerical aperture compound microscope. A fluorescent stereomicroscope for slower sub-second kinetics, and for evaluation of protein assays is also available.

This facility provides the complete infrastructure for the expression of proteins, including cloning of genes, construction of plasmids, expression of recombinant proteins and purification of proteins. Its instrumentation includes a PCR thermocycler, apparatus for gel electrophoresis, incubators for bacterial culture, freezers and a cold room, chromatography for protein purification, lyophilizer, centrifuge, sonicator, and a FPLC protein purification system.

The Materials Preparation Laboratory provides facilities for sample fabrication, processing, patterning and characterization. In response to demands in nanofabrication and synthesis, we have more tightly coupled sample fabrication and characterization by incorporating the previously separate Spectroscopic Facility into the Prep Lab. Key capabilities include: a cleanroom area that houses a Digital Instruments Nanoscope IIIa AFM/STM with capabilities for contact and tapping AFM imaging modes, STM, electro-chemistry, and an environmental sample chamber for in-situ AFM imaging up to +250 °C.