2025 ROCKY MOUNTAIN CHAPTER AVS SYMPOSIUM

The global demand for high-performance vacuum coating solutions continues to rise, driven by advancements in optics, electronics, aerospace and energy applications. This presentation explores how engineering excellence fuels growth in vacuum coating technologies through strategic vertical integration, robust in-house engineering, technical process capabilities, advanced automation, and strong collaboration with suppliers. By consolidating design, manufacturing, and process development under one roof, we can accelerate innovation cycles, reduce lead times, and maintain tighter quality control. Supplier partnerships further enhance agility, sustainability, and responsive scaling in diverse markets. Together, these integrated approaches position vacuum coating manufacturers to meet evolving global standards while fostering regional economic development and technical resilience. In-house process development has enabled rapid prototyping and scalability for using flexible vacuum coating solutions into manufacturing production.

The AVS has provided various types of education opportunities since the mid 1960’s. These have included public and private short courses for working technologists, training for high-school teachers through the AVS Science Educators Workshop (SEW), as well as on-line webinars and You-Tube videos available to the general public through the avs.org website. Most recently, a project funded through the American Institute of Physics (AIP) has allowed the AVS to explore expanding these education opportunities to communities historically underrepresented in high-technology sectors.

In an effort to address another important educational request, the AVS has begun to consider how to provide educational content for the rapidly expanding area of Quantum Science. Although many of the skills required for quantum technology are consistent with those of the present electronics industry, the cryogenic needs are markedly different. This talk will describe present efforts to develop AVS Short Course content that would provide technologists in the field of quantum technology with a “basic understanding” of cryogenic dilution-refrigeration systems. These refrigeration systems are necessary to maintain quantum “qubits” at temperatures of a few milli-Kelvins during operation of quantum computers. To expedite the development of this course content, it is believed that elements of the existing AVS courses can provide critical technology foundations, thereby enabling quantum-cryogenic equipment to be more readily understood by course participants (e.g., pulse-tube and Helium-dilution refrigerators). This initial course content is expected to expand over time to include other topics of increasing interest to the quantum workforce, such as content related to operation and maintenance of these very low temperature cryogenic systems.

The Conti Innovation Center is focused on advancing cadmium telluride thin-film technologies for solar applications through collaborative, data-driven research. Traditional single-parameter research approaches proved inadequate for the complex, interdependent processes needed by Conti’s device architecture, prompting the adoption of a matrix-based experimental design and with high-throughput analysis. A partnership with NREL, and use of their facilities required, coordinated deposition, characterization, and optimization at labs on opposite sides of the country. This required the development of digital tools for real-time data collection and workflow management. Over the past two years, the team has completed 70+ experiments, fabricating 10,000+ solar cells, generating an extensive dataset, which through 3D visualization techniques was able to identify optimal parameters and understand dependencies.

Crystalline β-Ga₂O₃ is an ultra-wide band gap material with important applications for high power electronics. High precision etching is required for β-Ga₂O₃ device fabrication.  Previous thermal atomic layer etching (ALE) attempts to etch β-Ga₂O₃ have not been successful.  Plasma etching of β-Ga₂O₃ using Cl-containing gases is difficult for Ångstrom-level etching control and can leave surface damage.  In this work, electron-enhanced chemical vapor etching (EE-CVE) of β-Ga₂O₃ is performed using an HCl reactive background gas (RBG) and positive bias applied to the sample stage.

The β-Ga₂O₃ film thickness was monitored using in situ spectroscopic ellipsometry.  The etch rate is tunable from 1-50 Å/min by varying the stage voltage from 0 to +40 V, respectively.  No etching was observed from electron exposures without the HCl RBG.  Negligible etching was observed without a positive sample stage.  The resulting increase in etch rate may be attributed to increased flux of reactive species (anions or radicals) caused by the positive DC bias applied during etching.

The names most associated with the history of quantum mechanics are Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, and Pauli. They are all theoretical physicists. Yet experiment also played an important role. In this talk I will offer credit to some of them. I will discuss Millikan’s measurement of Planck’s constant, the experiment of Ellis and Wooster that established the continuous energy spectrum of electrons in β decay and led to Pauli’s neutrino hypothesis and Fermi’s theory of β decay, and the experiment of Wu and her collaborators that demonstrated the nonconservation of parity, or the violation of space reflection symmetry in the weak interactions.

Atomic layer controlled etching of 2D MoS₂ crystalline layers is important for the fabrication of MoS₂ channel transistors.  Individual 2D MoS₂ layers must be removed to reduce MoS₂ multilayers to MoS₂ bilayers and monolayers.  Removal of individual MoS₂ layers requires lateral etching in the 2D plane of each MoS₂ layer.  In this study, the lateral etching of 2D MoS₂ crystalline layers was demonstrated using two sequential reactions for surface modification and volatile release of the modified layer.  O₃ was used for MoS₂ oxidation and SOCl₂ was used for the volatilization.

Studies were performed using high quality MoS₂ bilayers on silicon coupons. A decrease in optical contrast of the MoS₂ bilayer during MoS₂ etching was visualized by optical microscopy. Etching was observed by AFM as triangular etch pits inside the 2D MoS₂ domains and removal of MoS₂ from the edge of 2D MoS₂ domains. The triangular etch pits and the gaps between crystalline domains grew progressively versus number of etching cycles.

AFM images were consistent with lateral etching at step edges of the 2D MoS₂ layer. Enlargement of triangular etch pits versus number of etching cycles was “inside-out” lateral etching. Loss of MoS₂ from the edge of 2D MoS₂ crystalline domains versus number of etching cycles was “outside-in” etching. These AFM collocation experiments determined that “inside-out” and “outside-in” lateral etching rates were equivalent at ~5 Å per etching cycle at 175°C.