MRSEC researchers make extensive use of two existing facilities at UVa: the electron and ion microscope facility in the Materials Science Department, and the semiconductor cleanroom facility in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. MRSEC Center support also contributes to the surface science laboratory and to the operation of a computational cluster at UVa.

In addition, the MRSEC has commissioned additional pieces of major instrumentaiton in support of the IRG program. These include: (1) An excimer laser system for post-sample ionization in our existing focused ion beam system at UVa in order to enable measuable secondary ion mass spectroscopy yields from Ge quantum dots in a Si matrix; (2) a focused ion beam column, and associated control electronics and software for integration into the Ge-Si Molecular Beam Epitaxy system at UVa; (3) a focused ion beam and control electronics to enable in-situ experimentation in the UHV-CVD-TEM system operated by our collaboratos at IBM Yorktown Heights; and (4) an ultra-fast pulsing electrochemical machining system for nanoscale surface patterning.

Center research is advancing the understanding of surface templating, enabling quantitative predictive description of key processes. To this end, the Center is establishing FAUNA (the Facility for Atomic-Scale Understanding of Nucleation and Assembly). This facility consists of a UHV scanning probe microscope (SPM) and a UHV low-energy electron microscope, both equipped with in-situ surface modification and vapor deposition abilities. Both of these will couple to a mass-selected FIB column that will enable implantation from a variety of ion sources. Additionally, we are using a new FIB tomographic reconstruction technique to explore 3-D correlations due to propagation of strain fields in QD superlattice structures.