Guide to Graduate Study in Area V: Materials and Devices
Organization and Facilities
The research in Area V is carried out in a number of locations. One of these is the Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) located primarily in Bldg. 39, where research is concerned with the fabrication and study of micron-, submicron-, and nanometer-size structures and their use for the implementation of integrated electrical, optical and mechanical systems. Faculty and students from Area V are also located in the Center for Materials Science and Engineering (CMSE), which occupies Bldg. 13. Area V activities in Bldg. 13 encompass semiconductors, superconductors, organic semiconductors, and optical, microwave and quantum electronics. Within the Research Laboratory of Electronics, numerous laboratories supervised by the faculty support research activities in Area V.
Within the overall collaborative environment provided by the central laboratories there is autonomy at the level of local research groups, which contain one or more faculty members plus students and technical staff. Although a particular group will tend to concentrate on research projects related to its own special interests, there invariably occurs a continuous informal interaction among the groups and, as the need arises, inter-group programs are created. The Area is also involved in cooperative programs with other Areas in the Department and with other Departments. At present, there are joint programs with all other areas of the Department, and with faculty in the Departments of Physics, Materials Science and Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering, the Center for Materials Science and Engineering and the Media Lab.
Graduate Students who join the Area as Research Assistants are usually provided with office space. Faculty in the Area will ordinarily be able to provide office space to other graduate students engaged either in thesis research or in research under "6.960, Introductory Research" registration.
Faculty, staff and students participate in a variety of seminars that meet regularly to learn about current research being conducted internally and elsewhere. In addition, students in the Area participate in running a weekly seminar where they interchange ideas and hear about each others research activities.
The research facilities of each group are ordinarily available, on an arranged basis, to all students of MIT and, in addition, there exist a large number of central facilities and services that graduate students can draw upon. Facilities available in CMSE include: instrumentation for IR, optical and UV spectroscopy; x-ray analysis; equipment for measurement of transport properties in solids; and magnetic field facilities.
Also available are a number of technician-operated facilities accessible on an arranged basis. These include: several scanning electron microscopes, a scanning Auger microscope, an electron microprobe, an ion beam microprobe, atomic force microscopy, Rutherford backscattering, and facilities for chemical and spectroscopic analysis.