National Quantum Strategy

The tools you need, developed in-house

Our technical operations teams and machining and nanofabrication facilities support our researchers, staff and students to develop the tools they need through designing, prototyping, and producing equipment, and by training and supervising users to create the parts and devices to customize existing research instruments in order to solve specific research problems.

Read: The tools for innovation from concept through creation,

Custom tools developed in-house at the Blusson QMI machine shops

Blusson QMI is home to two machine shops: a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) shop and student machine shop (Room 125) and a high-head prototype machine shop (Room 124B). These are important facilities for the institute, offering support to researchers by enabling them to participate in the development of custom mechanical, ultra-high- vacuum and cryogenic equipment.

The Machine Shop team works with our researchers, staff, and students to design, prototype and manufacture components for ultra-high-vacuum and cryogenic equipment to be installed on various Blusson QMI and AMPEL research equipment.

Activities include:

  • performing general and computer numerical control (CNC) machining
  • fabrication and assembly of specified vacuum, cryogenics, and mechanical components and devices

The team also plans and complete custom jobs, developing supportive tools and components for specialized research equipment for unique applications. In most cases, these are novel parts that are not commercially available.

Accessing the machine shop

Students, research associates, and faculty are invited to submit their machining requirements to Harish Gautam by email to hgautam@phas.ubc.ca; accepted formats include 2D (PDF format) and 3D drawings (STEP format) including hand sketches via email.

For more information, including a list of tools that are currently available and machine shop hours are available at the Advanced Materials and Process Engineering Laboratory (AMPEL) website.

Training for graduate students

A feature of the Blusson QMI machine shops is the ability for students to learn machining skills under the supervision of shop technicians. For more information, email Harish Gautam, Machine Shop Supervisor, at hgautam@phas.ubc.ca.

This 8" wafer-capable EBL is already available for use by academic and industry parters.

The first nanofabrication lab of its kind in Canada

The newly renovated Nanofabrication Facility, operated by five dedicated engineers and managed by Operations Manager Pinder Dosanjh, is enhancing Blusson QMI’s ability to conduct world-class research. This state-of-the-art infrastructure and associated expertise is being made available to industry partners to provide advanced fabrication services. This facility is also the cornerstone of the SiEPICfab industry consortium recently established under Lukas Chrostowski’s leadership.

This 8″ wafer-capable EBL is already available for use by academic and industry partners.

The infrastructure project includes facility upgrades and the purchase of specialized equipment that together, with the recent acquisition of industry-standard tools such as an 8” wafer-capable, electron beam lithography (EBL) tool, will help create the first nanofabrication facility of its kind in Canada.

Phase 1 of this initiative was recently completed with cleanroom upgrades to higher ISO levels. Whereas the previous level was enough to support photolithography work, recent upgrades have increased the cleanliness levels by a factor of 10. The cleanroom is now available to academic and industry users.

Phase 2 completes this series of upgrades and acquisitions. Our focused ion beam (FIB) system enables us to offer a more streamlined production process for researchers (from both industry and academia) who are designing nanostructures (optical circuits, for instance) on semi-conductive substrates (wafers) requiring a high degree of reliability and accuracy in the etching process.

News

NRC-IRAP logo

Contact

To book Nanofabrication Facility equipment such as the EBL, please refer to the facility guidelines and UBC booking system or contact Pinder Dosanjh, Operations Manager, at dosanjh@phas.ubc.ca.

A technician works on equipment in the lab.

Quantum Materials Electron Microscopy Centre [In development]

When completed, the proposed Quantum Materials Electron Microscopy Center (QMEMC) will be a state-of-the-art multi-user electron microscopy facility with the highest spatial resolution and highest energy resolution of its kind in Canada. This multi-phase project will allow researchers to image samples with very high magnification, resolve individual atoms, determine their elemental species, and differentiate their oxidation state. QMEMC will be operational in late 2022.

CONTACT

Pinder Dosanjh

Quantum Materials Characterization Laboratory

This lab houses two Quantum Design Dynacool Physical Property Measurement Systems with 9 and 14 Tesla magnets and a Quantum Design Magnetic Property Measurement System with a 7 Tesla magnet that is used to characterize the magnetic and electronic properties of quantum materials. These instruments are used to perform heat capacity, electrical transport, thermal transport, and ac and dc susceptibility measurements. Low-temperature inserts provide access to helium-3 (350 mK) or dilution refrigerator temperatures (50 mK).

CONTACT

Alannah Hallas

Quantum Materials Design Laboratory

This lab is dedicated to the crystal growth of new quantum materials and includes a range of furnaces that can reach temperatures as high as 1800 C, three-zone gradient furnaces, and vacuum furnaces, as well as a quartz sealing station, an arc-melter, and argon gloveboxes. This lab houses a state-of-the-art Bruker D8 Advance powder x-ray diffractometer with a Johansson monochromator (K-alpha1), Lynxeye XE-T detector, and 9 position sample changer. This XRD is optimized for high throughput, high resolution, and low background measurements.

CONTACT

Alannah Hallas
A technician works on equipment in the lab.

Quantum Materials and Devices Foundry (QMDF)

This infrastructure is comprised of a large-scale, twin-chamber oxide MBE system coupled with a spin-ARPES system and custom-built laser system.

A $4.3M project funded at QMI in the CFI Leading Edge Fund 2012 competition. This infrastructure is comprised of a large-scale, twin-chamber oxide MBE system coupled with a spin-ARPES system and custom-built laser system – will be one of only a very few systems worldwide and in fact, the only system in the world that combines MBE in situ deposition and spin- as well as angle-resolved measurements, fully integrated and flexibly suited to rapidly developing, exhaustively characterizing and iteratively exploring a comprehensive range of quantum material systems. The MBEs are fully operational, while the ARPES system is under development. View Website

CONTACT

Ke Zou

Equipment

The Operations Team at Blusson QMI supports a wide range of specialized facilities and equipment, and collaborates with industry, government, and academic partners in the research and development of quantum and quantum-inspired materials research.

Learn More

The Quantum Colaboratory (Quantum Colab)

The Quantum Colab network links the University of Waterloo, Université de Sherbrooke, and the Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute at The University of British Columbia. Working together, we are enabling academic, non-profit and industry users to access and benefit from our highly specialized capabilities, empowering our partners to engage in world-class research and technology development.

Learn More