Laboratories and Facilities

Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with EDX and e-beam lithography microfabrication tool.
Two apparatus for SEM imaging are available:

• JEOL JSM 848.
• JEOL 6400F (FEG-SEM) field emission microscope, equipped with Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDX - Oxford) microprobe.

An Electron Beam Lithography tool (EBL) (ELPHY Quantum- Raith) is available and can work on both microscopes.

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM).
Two AFM instruments are available:

• Multimode-Nanoscope IV (Veeco Instruments, USA), equipped with a home-made low-current pre-amplifier for electrical nanometer-scale characterization of samples.
• Bioscope II-Nanoscope V (Veeco Instruments, USA) integrated in an inverted optical microscope for simultaneous AFM and optical characterization of biological samples, including fluorescence microscopy.

Both instruments provide nanometer resolution in ambient conditions, and are equipped with a fluid cell for imaging biological samples in liquid.

Confocal Microscopy.
Leica TCS SP2 equipped with:

• Acousto-Optical Beam Splitters (AOBS);
• Inverted microscope Leica DMIRE2 HC Fluo TCS 1-B-UV;
• lasers Ar (visible, 4 lines), HeNe (3 lines), UV (2 lines);
• LCS Microlab software per FRET e FRAP and Software Multicolor LCS.

Surface science facility.
UHV apparatus Leybold LHS 10/12 equipped for:

• X-ray Photoemission Spectroscopy (XPS),
• Ultraviolet Photoemission Spectroscopy (UPS),
• Auger Electron spectroscopy (AES)
• Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS).

Thermogravimetry.
Balance: C.I. model Mark 2.

FT-IR spectroscopy.
Spectrometer IR Jasco FT/IR-300E.

UV-VIS absorption spectroscopy.
Spectrophotometer UV-VIS. Jasco UV/VIS 7850.

Photoluminescence and Raman spectroscopy.
Home made apparatus with:

• Four excitation sources:
  1. continuous laser Argon BeamLok series 2065-7S (Spectra Physics): lines 514.5nm/2600mW, 488nm/1900mW, 364nm/250mW, 351nm/250mW;
  2. continuous laser HeCd IK5352 R-D series (Kimmon): lines 441.6nm/50mW, 325nm/10mW.
  3. continuous laser He-Ne R-30991 (Newport) 633nm/5mW.
  4. pulsed: laser Nd:Yag Laser Giant G790-20 (Quanta System).at 532 nm (9ns @ 20Hz max): lines 1064nm (1600mJ/pulse), 532nm (750mJ/pulse), 355nm (400mJ/pulse), 266nm (120mJ/pulse).
• Monochromator (Acton SP-2558-9N, Focal length = 500mm) equipped with three gratings (68x68mm con 300 linee/mm (blazing 500nm), 600 linee/mm (blazing 300nm) e 1200 linee/mm (blazing 500nm).
• CCD Spec10:400B/LN (Roper-Princeton Instrument), liquid nitrogen cooling, back illuminated, 1340x400 pixel, 20x20 ?m pixel, spectral range 200-950 nm, equipped with control unit ST133A con A/D converter da 16 bit a 100KHz e 1MHz.

Fluorescence spectroscopy.
Fluorimetro Fluorolog-3 (Jobin Yvone) equipped with Xenon lamp and CCD detector.

Cell culture laboratory.
Many facilities for cell growth are available:

• CO2 incubator Galaxy S (RS Biotech);
• Water purification system Elix5® (Millipore);
• Box Biohazard Jupiter 3 (Celbio). Safety box to vertical laminar flow;
• Centrifuge EPPENDORF;
• G-Term 035 Thermostatic Ovens;
• ALFA-10-PLUS Autoclaves;
• Thermostatic bath;
• pH212 Microprocessor pH Meter;
• Axiovert 40 (Zeiss). Inverted microscope for observations in brightfield, phase contrast and fluorescence, complete of system for digital acquisition (Canon). Objectives: CP-“Achromat” 5X/0,12; CP-“Achromat” 10X/0,25 Ph1; “A-Plan” 20X/0,30 LD Ph1; “A-Plan” 40X/0,50 LD Ph2. The microscope is provided of two filters for the fluorescence: filter set 15 green (red fluorescence) and filter set 34 for GFP blue (green fluorescence);
• Axio Imager A1 MAT microscope, Obj.Epiplan 20X/0,40 HD, Obj.Epiplan-neofluar 50X/0,50 HD DIC, dark field reflector, C-DIC reflector.

Organic and inorganic thin film deposition systems.
Home made apparatus for combinatorial deposition approach.

Resistive evaporator.
Edwards coating system E306A.

Supersonic cluster beam deposition systems.
Four main deposition apparatus equipped with Pulsed Microplasma Cluster Sources (PMCSs):

• MULAN: devoted to the synthesis of composited films with high deposition rate and large deposition area, equipped with remote controlled manipulator, ion source, two PMCSs producing crossing beams, two deposition chambers;
• CLARONA devoted to the synthesis of transition metal oxide films for biological applications;
• OLD devoted to the transport measurements during cluster assembling process;
• CESYRA devoted to the study with synchrotron radiation of free clusters equipped with two-stages time of flight mass spectrometer (TOF/MS).