Equipment

The Lee group laboratory is located in Horizon I at the University of South Carolina. 

The following equipment is located in the Lee group.

• Pulsed laser deposition (PLD): The PLD has a six-target manipulator. Each target can hold a 1” diameter × .25” target. Our unique target-repositioning system allows the target to be removed from the manipulator, re-surfaced, and put back without having to realign the laser beam spot. The PLD is equipped with a rotating substrate heater (up to 1200 °C). KrF excimer laser is used for deposition.

• High-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD): The PANalytical X’Pert Pro is a multipurpose x-ray diffractometer equipped with a Cu Kα source. The HRXRD is capable of both high-resolution and lower-resolution measurements and enables a wide range of thin film and powder sample analysis.

• Electrical Conductivity Relaxation (ECR): ECR measurements are widely used to determine oxygen surface exchange and bulk diffusion coefficients for oxide materials. Simultaneously, this ECR technique can also be used to measure the electrical conductivity of materials in the temperatures range of RT to 900 OC.

• Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS): EIS measurements are widely used to determine the ORR kinetics and ionic conductivity for oxide materials. EIS measurements are generally AC measurements. EIS is connected to various oxygen gas cylinders. EIS measurements are performed in the temperature range of RT to 900 OC.

• Thermopower measurement system: The thermopower of all samples will be measured using a lab-made Seebeck coefficient measurement system. This system was specially designed for thin film measurements. Samples can be measured in the range of RT to 500 OC.