Thin films combinatorial synthesis and characterization

If we consider all the parameters that can be varied, the space of materials to be tested is immense. In a conventional study a researcher can select only one or few variants of a given parameter for its measurements. This makes the discovery of new promising materials slow and in part based on chance, since the choice of parameters is almost arbitrary and one cannot exclude having missed some interesting variants. For this reason, in recent years a new paradigm has started emerging. In combinatorial synthesys a library of samples is fabricated, where one or more parameters are made to vary continuously along some direction on the library. These libraries can then be coupled with characterization techinques that sample the properties of interest at each specific site and map those properties along the sample. This allows for a much faster and complete investigation of new materials.

In our group we use multisource magnetron sputtering to fabricate libraries of metallic oxides where we can represent different ratios among the metals of a ternary oxide or different doping concentrations. We then developed a custom Scanning Photoelectrochemical Flow Cell that can move on top of the sample and make several electrochemical and photoelectrochemical measurements on a specific site.