SHIMOGAKI Lab., Dept. of Materials Engineering, The Univ. of Tokyo

Greeting

“Thin film technology creates the future”

With technological advancement, our everyday goods continually become more sophisticated and provide us with new functions and values. It is without doubt that this trend will go on for as long as the engineering spirit of humankind continues. Materials science and engineering has always played a critical role in the history of human technological development, through improving the performance of existing materials of and synthesizing completely new ones. Materials research is often perceived as all about discovering new materials and studying its behavior (i.e. materials science), which is only part of the story. Equally important is its engineering aspect, specifically the processing of materials, because how a material is synthesized intricately affects its global properties (crystallnity, composition, morphology, uniformity, etc.), and ultimately its cost-performance in the final product. To illustrate the importance of processing, consider the synthesis of diamond. It is created naturally in the pyrogenic strata at above 2000 degree Celsius and 10,000 atm pressure, conditions that are incredibly difficult to achieve in the laboratory. However, equipped with an understanding in materials processing, we can use a synthesis method known as chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to create diamond at relatively mild conditions at several hundred degree Celsius and atmospheric pressure.

Of the various materials processing technology, our research group focuses on thin film deposition, and particularly systems that involve chemical reactions. With our in-house deposition equipment and thin-film characterization tools, we aim for a systematic understanding of the deposition processes, and its application in proposing e novel methods to realize functional thin films not attainable by conventional means. We refer to our work as “Device Process Engineering”. Please see section on “Research” for more details.

Video about introduction of the lab was prepared (Sorry but only Japanese version...).
This video was used in May Festival held online in September 2020.
We thank Mr. Ryuji Ohtsuka and Mr. Kei Shimaoka for making the video.

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