Physics Laboratory

Service and equipment portfolio 

The Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) Laboratory is located in the low-vibration basement rooms of the former nuclear physics laboratory on the City Centre Campus.

Most of the investigations conducted here form part of national and international research projects; they are undertaken in close collaboration with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Stuttgart. The work focuses primarily on the characterisation of components in electrochemical energy storage devices and fuel cell systems.

The equipment is also used for teaching purposes. The laboratory thus also undertakes analyses as part of investigations into special issues forming part of project work and Bachelor and Master theses. In the “Physical Bioanalysis” mandatory elective, students in the Biotechnology Bachelor (BTB) degree programme are introduced to modern high-resolution imaging methods using AFM (and SEM) by measuring specimens they have produced themselves.

Scanning probe microscopy

The laboratory operates two modern AFM devices, which can perform parallel measurements of the topographical surface structure and also properties such as adhesion, deformability, hardness and conductivity. One of the two devices operates under argon as the shielding gas, which facilitates the analysis of samples sensitive to oxygen or humidity.

Sample preparation

The laboratory also has an ion beam milling system which can be used to produce cross-sections of samples such as polymer membranes from Proton-Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells, for example.

Application examples

Head of Laboratory

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Hanno Käß

Assistant

Jan-Frederik-Heger

Laboratory : S 07.-105

The service of this laboratory contains different lessons and experiments

Head of Laboratory

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Arndt Jaeger