Facilities At The Texas Center For Superconductivity

TcSUH Facilities Overview

TcSUH occupies more than 60,000 square feet of space in 3 buildings on the University of Houston campus. Our facilities house over 25 million dollars in equipment dedicated to the fabrication and analysis of superconductor materials, processing and characterization of compound semiconductors, advanced oxide material systems, and advancement of thin film deposition techniques.

The equipment is a combination of commercial and custom built systems that allow the production of high temperature superconductors (HTS) and state-of-the-art thin film material structures and devices. Administration offices and a majority of the laboratory space is located in the University of Houston Science Center, with equipment and research project offices in Science and Research Building One and the Cullen College of Engineering. TcSUH administrative operations include lab management and technical personnel.

Large scale facility infrastructure is supported by University of Houston, and the Center's IT is integrated with the UH LAN with data and communication protected behind a robust campus firewall.


TcSUH Core Facilities

The Materials Characterization Facility (MCF)

The Materials Characterization Facility (MCF) serves TcSUH laboratories and research groups with expertise in electron microanalysis, measurement of materials microstructures, and high pressure-high temperature synthesis. MCF equipment and capabilities include a JEOL 2000 FX transmission electron microscope, a JEOL 2010SFX scanning transmission electron microscope, a JEOL JXA-8600 electron microprobe, a JEOL JSM 6330F Scanning electron microscope, and Siemens D5000 and Rigaku SmartLab X-ray powder diffractometers.

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TAPAF: Thermal and Porosity Analysis Facility

We have established a new core facility at UH, named TAPAF: Thermal and Porosity Analysis Facility. This facility operates as an approved recharge recovery operation jointly by TcSUH and the Department of Chemistry. TAPAF will bring together instrumentation and technical expertise in four areas of advanced materials characterization: (a) thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA), (b) differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), (c) measurement of gas sorption and porosity, and (d) dilatometry.

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ADDITIONAL TcSUH LAB FACILITIES

Some facilities are available through collaboration with the TcSUH Principal Investigators who head them. Students receive hands-on experience, learning a wide variety of skills as they work in multidisciplinary groups within our facilities.

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Becoming a User

Training on the equipment one-on-one is provided by Facility personnel. Contact Professor Dezhi Wang, dwang29@central.uh.edu, to be connected with the appropriate lab personnel. Training preceeds independent usage of the facilities. Once the lab manager has determined that you are a qualified user, access to each lab is 24/7. A user fee is charged for each of the facilities according to the complexity of the equipment.

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TcSUH CORE Facilities Fee Schedule

Charges for UH researchers depend upon whether the machine is operated by the researcher DIY(“Do-It-Yourself”) or whether TCSUH personnel perform that duty (“Service”). Hourly charges billed to University of Houston accounts are below. Fees below are listed in US Dollars.

TEM SEM EMPA XRD 5000 XRD Rigaku DOIL Carbon Coating
UH-Users
UH-Users |    DIY Rate $48/ per hour $30 /per hr. $30 /per hr. $17 /per hr. $171 /per hr. $6 /per hr.
 
UH Users | Service Rate $103 /per hr. $85 /per hr. $85 /per hr. $72 /per hr. $721 /per hr. $36 /per hr. $10 /per use
 
NoN-UH Users | DIY Rate $73 /per hr. $46 /per hr. $46 /per hr. $26 /per hr. $261 /per hr. $9 /per hr.
  Non-UH ServiceRate
Non-UH Users | Service Rate $157 /per hr. $130 /per hr. $130 /per hr. $110 /per hr. $1101 /per hr. $55 /per hr. $15 /per use
Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) Dilatometry (DIL) Simultaneous Thermal Analyzer (STA) Surface Area Analysis Sputter Coater
UH-Users
UH-Users |         DIY Rate
 
UH Users | Service Rate $35 /per sample $25 /per sample $35 /per sample $60 /per sample $40 /per sample $10 /per use
 
NoN-UH Users | DIY Rate
  Non-UH ServiceRate
Non-UH Users | Service Rate $53 /per sample $38 /per sample $53 /per sample $92 /per sample $61 /per sample $15 /per use

Rate Notations 1 The hourly rate noted is for shorter-term experiments (i.e., 12 hours or less). In the event of longer-term experiments (i.e., > 12 hours), the user will be charged for a maximum of 12 hours. Please note that this includes only continuous experiments rather than a cumulative use involving multiple experiments.