Professor Shane Cybart and co-PI Professor Rich Wilson were awarded  a $362,649 grant to bring new equipment to the University of California, Riverside that will allow us to strengthen existing Department of Defense (DoD) research, develop new DoD research capabilities and
increase educational outreach at all levels: K-12, undergraduate and graduate, with emphasis on the Hispanic communities of Southern California’s Inland Empire region. The funding will be utilized for the construction of a shared pulsed laser deposition (PLD) facility for thin-film synthesis. The PLD system will be incorporated into a program that advances STEM education and research in the areas of thin film electronic materials, synthesis and characterization, as well as advanced nano-electronics engineering. Synthesis and characterization of functional materials overlaps with several relevant DoD related areas of interest, such as semiconductors, superconductors, metamaterials, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and photonics.
Construction of a state-of-the-art PLD facility at UCR will promote and support numerous ongoing DoD research projects, and it will provide UCR with the ability to launch new ones.