A key infrastructure in the development of new experimental techniques is the ability to provide on demand surface coatings and thin films on a short time scale. The thin-film lab supports very different tasks ranging from surface coatings for optical or UV mirrors, photosensitive cathode materials to complex multilayer structures for neutron detection. For vapor deposition, we apply different methods like Joule heating, electron beam heating or laser plasma deposition. Our workhorse is a 60 cm Varian 3119 R&D coater system (see fig. 1) with a 10 kW electron gun. A special laser plasma deposition plant (see fig. 2) with a Spectron Laser SL801 (0.4 J pulse energy) allows for the production of ultra-thin (1 - 15 µg/cm²) self-supporting diamond like carbon (DLC) foils. These foils can be produced up to a maximum diameter of 200 mm (see fig. 3).

Typical applications: secondary electrons, charge stripping, detector windows, particle accelerators, particle detector development, optical coatings, photo cathodes, monoisotopic targets