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Novel and compound glass facility

4m Drawing tower
Our 4-metre drawing tower
A woman near CVD Glovebox with Furnace 
Chemical vapour deposition glovebox system with furnace 
4m Drawing tower 
A further view of our 4-metre drawing tower 

About the Novel and compound glass facility

Part of the Zepler Cleanrooms

We specialise in advanced material development. This ranges from exotic 2D semiconductors to bulk glasses with wide optical transparency. Our equipment is custom designed and configurable to suit requirements for novel materials. Our range of tools also allows us to adapt quickly towards emerging technologies. We focus in particular on industrial partnerships and international collaborations.

Our facilities underpin a wide range of specialised material synthesis including:

  • 2D materials
  • layered and chalcogenide semiconductors
  • dielectrics
  • phase change materials
  • glass making
  • fibre drawing

These enable devices such as those used in:

  • flexible electronics
  • integrated photonic memories
  • glasses with very wide optical transmission  
  • composite microstructured optical fibres

Our capabilities have led to developments in key application areas such as:

  • cutting-edge electronics
  • photonic computing and telecommunications
  • passive and active infrared fibre components
  • novel photonic-electronic hybrid devices

Technical specification

We offer specialised glass making using glovebox systems for batching, melting, annealing and casting of glass under dry inert atmosphere. We can further process these glasses into fibre using our fibre drawing tower.

We offer and develop new advanced and exotic materials. These include graphene and 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) by atomic layer deposition (ALD) and chemical vapour deposition (CVD). We achieve this using our diverse array of precursors and specialist gases such as hydrogen sulphide (H2S).

Equipment List  

  • CVD glovebox system for functional chalcogenides and nano materials 
  • CVD graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) system
  • ALD glovebox system for oxides, carbide and TMDs
  • 200 millimetre wafer 2D material systems
  • novel glass purification and melting system
  • high purity metal sulphide powder synthesis
  • 4 metre soft glass drawing tower, tailored for making non-silica chalcogenide, oxide, fluoride and phosphate based solid, ultra-thin, metal core and hollow core fibres 

Our equipment is all custom designed and is reconfigurable to suit specific requirements for novel materials.

Contact us

Contact us

For more information or to book the facility, get in touch:
[email protected]

Related research groups

Sustainable Electronic Technologies

We explore how to improve renewable energy sources and create more efficient electronic device technology to benefit the environment.