The physics department's machine shop occupies about 3,000 square feet on the second floor of the Science Building. Its staff is highly experienced in research instrumentation. The fully equipped shop includes welding and precision instrument-making facilities. The departmental electronics shop is our newest facility and is headed by a full-time engineer. These two shops provide the means for the design, fabrication and repair of mechanical and electronic equipment necessary for state-of-the-art research.
The department has special facilities for making and storing samples used in solid-state and biophysics experiments. These include evaporators, crystal-cutting apparatuses (spark cutter, wire saw, diamond saw), polishing machines, presses, heat-treatment facilities (r.f. induction furnace, arc furnace, annealing ovens), an interferometer, a centrifuge, a Zeiss microscope, and a spectrophotometer. Other science departments have scanning and transmission electron microscopes, which are accessible to our researchers.