Laser deposition creates unique porous membranes

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL, Los Alamos, NM) in conjunction with Dow Chemical (Midland, MI) have deposited zeolite onto a ceramic substrate with pulsed-laser deposition. The resulting thin membranes maintain an efficient porous structure that can be used to separate gases in a process stream. The membranes were produced by aiming a 532-nm Nd:YAG laser at a rotating zeolite target in a vacuum chamber. Ablated particles formed the thin-film membrane on a substrate 5 cm in front of the target.

Ti:sapphire oscillator produces high-quality 8-femtosecond pulses