Up Close: Materials Science at the CSIRO Division of Applied Physics, Sydney, Australia
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tion on the Organization's CYBER 205 supercomputer. Magnetron sputtering has many advantages for coating large areas, and the discharge should be able to provide ions at the substrate to assist the deposition. Of course, magnetrons are used in many situations precisely because they do not bombard the substrate. New configurations of magnetic fields have been developed (Figure 2) so that substrates are bombarded by an ion flux of the same order as the depositing atom flux. These sources have been used in studies of both the lattice strains produced by the peening action of the bombarding ions and the changes in preferred orientation resulting from these strains. Current research is predominantly on optical coatings (covering the develop-
This article is part of a series focusing on the research' capabilities and goals of interdisciplinary laboratories pursuing materials research in universities, industry, and government.
The Division of Applied Physics of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization performs research in the physical sciences to benefit Australian industry and also staffs the National Measurement Laboratory, underpinning the Australian measurement system. CSIRO is the major government-funded research organization in Australia, employing approximately 7,000 people, based in 30 divisions, and whose interests range from the agricultural and livestock areas through prospecting, mining, and manufacturing to information and communication technologies. The general mix of work in the divisions includes a proportion of basic science and a significant involvement in contract research with relevant Australian industries. The Division of Applied Physics is one of the oldest divisions and celebrates its 50th Jubilee in 1988. This year is also the 200th anniversary of European settlement in Australia and the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Australian Institute of Physics. It was a busy year for the laboratory! Materials science research in the Division developed from the needs of the standards research program, passed through a period of primarily basic research, and now concentrates on industrial research and the underlying basic research. Four areas which exemplify this progression toward applied research and development are described in this article. 32
Thin Film Science Thin film research started in the Division in the 1950s to produce optical coatings, driven by the requirements of a developing standards research program, and the needs of an astronomy program to study the surface of the sun spectroscopically. From this early work on optical coatings, the laboratory's work has expanded to include the deposition of thin films by most physical vapor deposition techniques and the development of measurement techniques for many applications. Deposition techniques available include evaporation using resistive or e-beam heating (with ion beam assistance) and cathodic arc heating, and sputtering using ion beams, dc magnetrons, and rf diodes. For the past five years, under the direction o
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