Welcome to LGM laboratories

The LGM Laboratory (Laboratorio Getti Molecolari), at the Physics Department of the University of Milan, has a long-standing tradition in the field of the production and characterization of nanostructured materials. The production technique, called Supersonic Cluster Beams Deposition (SCBD) consists in the assembling of clusters produced in supersonic expansions. The process allow to deposit nanostructured thin films with a precise control on cluster mass distribution and kinetic energy.

The production process is based on a novel cluster source (PMCS, "Pulsed Microplasma Cluster Source"), characterized by high deopsition rates, high stability and low gas load.
The pulsed microplasma cluster source (PMCS) technology consists in the generation of clusters by condensation of a plasma of the desired material with an inert carrier gas (usually He). The PMCS consists in a condensation chamber with two electrodes of the material to vaporized are placed. A pulsed valve introduced a He pulse in the source chamber and a high voltage is applied between the electrodes. The gas is ionized and accelerated towards the cathode to produced ablation by plasma sputtering.
The plasma is confined very precisely on a small region of the cathode surface by exploiting gas dynamic effects. This allows a very high yield of the sputtering process and a very high stability of the PMCS operations. The plasma then condense into clusters. The He- clusters mixture undergo a supersonic expansion due to the high pressure gradient between the source chamber and the deposition chamber. The cluster mass distribution and the beam collimation can be controlled by the use of a focalizing nozzle acting as a gas centrifuge and exploiting aerodynamic effects.

HOT NEWS: On the 23rd June 2006 the LGM lab has been awarded of the Professor Luigi Tartufari's Prize from the "ACCADEMIA NAZIONALE DEI LINCEI".