The furnace is based on a design originally brought to G1 by John Hart’s group (MIT, then at University of Michigan) to study fabrication and kinetic effects in carbon nano-tube forests. The furnace uses highly doped, single-crystal silicon as the sample stage and heater. The temperature response is fast (~100C/second), accurate, and results in relatively little sample motion from thermal expansion. The furnace can be operated in air or under gas flow, and exchanging samples is straightforward and fast.
This furnace brings a new end station capability to the CHESS user community. CHESS staff have worked with graduate students from two research groups, one based at Cornell and another at Princeton, to commission and fine-tune the instrument. Upon delivery, initial assembly and tests were performed by graduate students Joerg Werner and Hiroaki Sai (PhD, 2012) in Ulrich Weisner's group at Cornell. Next, CHESS post-doc Robin Baur interfaced the RS-232 temperature control interface to the SPEC control software. Finally, Anna Hispanski, a graduate student in Lynn Loo's group (Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton) worked with CHESS scientist Arthur Woll to characterize and optimize the temperature measurement, response and control of the system. As of November 2013, the system was running well. The furnace is ready for general use. Interested users should contact Arthur Woll or Kathy Dedrick.
See also:
http://news.chess.cornell.edu/articles/2012/Woll12212012b.html
And:
E.R. Meshot, E.A. Verploegen, M. Bedewy, S. Tawfick, A.R. Woll, K.S. Green, M. Hromalik, L.J. Koerner, H.T. Philipp, M.W. Tate, S.M. Gruner, and A.J. Hart; "High-speed in situ X-ray Scattering of Carbon Nanotube Film Nucleation and Self-organization", ACS Nano. 6:5091-5101 (2012).