2026 ROCKY MOUNTAIN CHAPTER AVS SYMPOSIUM

As nanotechnology continues to advance, ion beam processing has become increasingly necessary to meet stringent thin film quality standards or production rate requirements. Broad-beam ion sources come in many types and sizes, and identifying the ideal ion beam technology for a specific application is not always obvious. This presentation will discuss the different types of ion sources, examining their operational differences, capabilities, and applications. Attendees will gain a practical framework for evaluating when to use an ion source and how to select the right technology for their application.

X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) depth profiling is a widely used analytical technique for determining the chemical composition and chemical state distribution within thin films, coatings, multilayer structures, and engineered materials. Conventional XPS depth profiling relies on ion beam sputtering, which can induce significant chemical damage and preferential sputtering effects in many organic and inorganic materials, complicating the interpretation of depth-dependent chemical information.

The Thermo Scientific™ Hypulse™ XPS introduces femtosecond laser ablation as a complementary material removal technique for XPS depth profiling. By minimizing the chemical and structural modifications commonly associated with ion beam sputtering, femtosecond laser ablation enables the characterization of a broad range of challenging materials while providing access to significantly greater analysis depths and faster profiling rates.

This presentation will focus on the practical application of Hypulse XPS for the characterization of advanced materials relevant to energy storage, catalysis, and functional materials research. Examples will include depth-resolved analysis of battery materials such as graphite-silica composite anodes, lithium fluoride-containing interfaces, and coated NMC cathode particles, where preservation of chemical information is critical to understanding material performance. Additional case studies will demonstrate the analysis of complex transition metal oxides and large organometallic compounds that are difficult to characterize using conventional sputter-based depth profiling approaches.

These examples highlight how femtosecond laser ablation XPS expands the range of materials accessible to depth-resolved chemical analysis and provides new opportunities for investigating complex, heterogeneous materials systems. The capabilities of the Hypulse XPS platform and its potential impact on advanced materials characterization will be discussed.

Our energy future will ask for more: more power, more reliably, built faster than we are used to. Electrification, reindustrialization, and the compute boom are driving demand up at the same time we want energy that is cleaner, cheaper, and more secure. Meeting that is hard in both senses of the word: technically difficult, and built on hardware, capital, and infrastructure rather than software. Carrying a new technology from a promising result to something the world deploys means crossing from the world of entrepreneurs, who originate and take risk, into the world of incumbents, who hold the scale and capital to build at the size the problem demands. That crossing is where most good ideas stall, and where researchers have more leverage than they tend to realize. This discussion will offer perspective for where academic research sits in this landscape and how it becomes impactful.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are now at scale and the first EVs are retiring. The automotive recycling market has questions about how to derive the highest and best value from used EV batteries. Batteries retired from EVs may have another 10 years of life in them, depending on their chemistry, how old they are, and how the EV was driven and charged. Battery second use (2U) seeks to use retired EV batteries in stationary battery energy storage system applications and derives additional profit before the used EV batteries are recycled. This report summarizes the 2U business landscape, estimates 2U battery lifetime for six applications, and compares the residual value of used EV batteries to recycling.