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Main axes of research

Thanks to its leading-edge techniques employed by highly-specialised scientists, the Materials Analysis Unit offers access to a range of instruments enabling to characterise any type of solid material or surface, regardless of its nature (metal; ceramic; glass; polymer; semi-conductor; composite) and the form it takes (solid material; composite; thin or thick layers; powders). The unit also offers access to many fields of expertise in materials science, and a comprehensive range of data interpretation and assessment tools that allow catering for all aspects of characterisation of materials, surfaces and interfaces.

Its analysis capabilities and its expertise are used for one-off services (materials assessment and root cause analysis, for example), as well as in many applied or fundamental and national or international research projects. Its clients are scientists and engineers from the community of materials, industries, research centres and academic laboratories in Europe, the USA and even Japan.

Research subjects:

• Materials Characterisation: all materials, surface, thin film, bulk and particles
• Surface and Interface Analysis: elemental and molecular chemistry in these regions at ppb levels
• Multi-Element Depth Profiling: at depths of nm to tens of µm
• Elemental and Molecular Imaging: maps the entire chemistry across a surface or cross-section
• Surface Topography: generates 3D maps on nm scale showing microstructure, wear, roughness etc.
• Validation, testing: raw materials, cleanliness and process

Application domains

• R&D of materials and surfaces
• Quality control (raw material, etc.)
• Monitoring and optimisation of production process, yield improvement
• Fundamental research in biology, medicine and materials science

Current research projects

• NSF-BCN: Materials World Network: Design, Growth, and Properties of Boron-Based Thin Films for Electronics and Nanosized Electronics
• SpiTriCoat: High temperature new hard nanocomposite coatings: study of tribofilm formation and effect of added elements on a spinodal mechanism.
• PC-SIMS: Small clusters in dynamic SIMS
• NANEAU (EVA Department, CRP-GL Coordinator): Toxicological effects of emerging nanoparticles in water on models for aquatic organisms and human uptake from drinking water
• ACCESS (Photovoltaic Department, University of Luxembourg, Coordinator): Advanced Characterization of Chalcopyrite Electrodeposited SemiconductorS for Enhanced Devices
• ARTEION: Study of artefacts in ionic image

Areas of competence

Automotive, Construction, Engineering, Environment, Life Sciences, health and biotechnology, Materials and surface treatment, Aeronautics and space, Measuring and testing devices, Other industrial (printing, paper, wood, etc), Heating and ventilation, Electronics, micro- and nanosystems, Energy, Chemical and parachemical industry, Mineral, glass and ceramic products, Company services, consulting, Metallurgy and metal works

Technology keywords

Amplifier, A/D Transducer - Electronic measurement systems - Medical Research