Typical chemistry lab infrastructure, includes:

• 7 fume hoods
• 3 vacuum or high-vacuum lines with oil and diffusion pumps plus glass blowing capability
• rotary vacuum evaporators
• drying ovens and vacuum oven with controlled environment
• ultrasonicators (bath and tip)
• centrifuges
• high-temperature furnaces for melting and annealing, etc

All of the above is suitable for the design and synthesis of special materials for technological applications:
(a) Carbon nanostructures and two-dimensional nanomaterials
(b) Macromolecular materials and nanostructures
(c) Low dimensional hybrid organic-inorganic compounds
(d) Nanostructured amorphous materials with advanced functionality; high-temperature synthesis of inorganic compounds (glasses, metal oxides, ceramics)

Laser-assisted chemical etching platform: Home-built setup for microstructuring the surface of solid-state materials, employing laser irradiation in the presence of a gas ambient. Includes vacuum chamber, gas flow system with pressure gauges, optical components, and XY computer controlled motorized translation stages for treatment of large surfaces. The pulsed Nd:YAG laser (pulse duration 4 ns) can emit at the following wavelengths: 1064 nm (fundamental), 532 nm (second harmonic frequency) and 355 nm (third harmonic frequency).

Thin film preparation by pulsed laser ablation of metallic or ceramic targets in a reactive oxygen ambient atmosphere (R-PLD, Reactive Pulsed Laser Deposition). This home-made setup includes (a) ultra-high vacuum chamber supported by a differential pumping system with vacuum gauges and (b) Nd:YAG laser operating in the infrared (1064 nm), visible (532 nm) and ultraviolet (355 nm) range.

The PLD chamber with a close-up of the plume

Two Electro-thermal poling and one corona poling home-made setups for the creation of nanostructures in isotropic (e.g. glassy) materials, aiming at the development of hybrid materials with non-linear optical properties. The one shown here is the larger setup; there is another one which is more compact. The setup comprises:

• High voltage power supply, by NSE-Electronics (maximum voltage 15kV).
• Temperature resistant stainless steel tube-like cell with special electrodes and a compact box-like metal cell, for high voltage application. Both cells have controlled atmosphere capability (vacuum or constant inert gas flow).
• High temperature tubular oven, which accommodates the stainless steel tube-like cell. The box-like cell has an independent thermocouple and temperature controller.
• Rotary vacuum pump.
• The corona poling setup uses a floating voltage Pt wire.

Used for the study of thermal-electric-field-poling-induced non-linear optical properties in glassy materials. This occurs via the development of surface layers with nanostructural variations with respect to the untreated material.