ssociate Professor Julia A. Mundy of the physics department leads a twenty-three-person team consisting of three postdoctoral researchers, nine graduate students, eight undergraduates, a research scientist, and an engineer. The lab makes advancements in the quest toward room-temperature superconductors, explores new quantum mechanical behavior, and even has applications in improving the efficiency of telecommunications.

The lab focuses primarily on the synthesis and characterization of thin films, sheets of various materials with thicknesses measured at the atomic level. Under the right conditions, these materials exhibit superconductivity, a property where electrical current can flow through a material with no resistance.

An appropriate crystal template is selected, on top of which a thin film — in this case barium titanate — can grow.

The sample is loaded into a vacuum chamber, from which point it is moved by robotic arms and controlled remotely by computers.

The Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) machine heats substances to 400-1000°C to be deposited into the crystal template

The chemistry room prepares materials for use, before the vacuum machines pull the ultra high vacuum needed for the lab to operate.

Finally, in the characterization room, an X-Ray Diffraction Machine is used to examine and validate the synthesized materials.