The magnetics laboratory in the electrical engineering department at Washington University comprises four application areas: thin film device fabrication, thin film device characterization, magnetic recording testing, and magnetic computing. The following resources are available in the laboratory, or otherwise accessible to faculty and students. 
 
 

Fabrication: we are capable of the deposition, patterning, and construction of near-micron scale devices. The facility's fabrication equipment consists of a sputter deposition system with both dc and rf diode capability, a thermal evaporator, an ion mill, and a reactive plasma etcher. The photolithographic equipment includes a computer for pattern generation, photographic reduction and step-and-repeat cameras capable of near-micron geometries, a mask aligner, a spin coater and ovens. Lapping facilities and a diamond saw are available for device fabrication, with an ultrasonic wire bonder for electrical connection to the fabricated devices. The equipment supplies the necessary tools for fabricating devices for testing at Washington University. The limited resolution of the mask generating system is expected to be adequate for the currently planned application. Until the time is appropriate to have micron or submicron capabilities in house, we can obtain masks from external sources if needed. 
 
 

Testing and characterization: film thickness is measured on a stylus profilometer with about 10 Å resolution. Thin film magnetic measurement systems include an ac hysteresis looper and a biaxial VSM. A scanning probe microscope with atomic, magnetic and electric modes has been acquired. Elevated temperatures and external fields may be applied to the samples under test. All the equipment is computer controlled for consistency, repeatability, and simplicity of data manipulation. Microanalytical techniques for thin film materials characterization are available to researchers at Washington University. These tools consist of a scanning probe microscope, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope, electron microprobe, auger spectrometer, and x-ray diffractometer. 
 
 

Recording: computer-controlled test stands capable of testing rigid media, with various head configurations, and affording fine (less than 0.1 µm) track, edge, and azimuth control. Spectrum analysis for noise measurements, random data patterns, speed control, and various write currents are available. Control of the recording and reading temperature has been added. Signal analysis equipment for rise-time and impedance measurements are available and new procedures are under development. 
 
 

Computing: several personal computers are available for program development, small computational loads, and laboratory equipment control. Larger programs are transported to Sun Sparcstations. Unique computational facilities available at Washington University are the parallel processors, the single instruction, grid layout DAP, the hypercube configuration NCUBE, and a DEC MPP 12000. We are using these machines for application to problems in magnetics.