One system contains both scanning Auger electron and secondary ion mass spectroscopies. A new facility for generation of ultrashort x-ray pulses is being developed. More than 60 networked workstations running Linux, Unix, and Windows NT provide access to the Internet and to tools such as Mathematica, TeX, data analysis and graphics programs, Web development, and compilers for number crunching. The Physics Department maintains fully equipped electronics and instrument shops with full-time technicians in each. The electronics support includes design, fabrication, and repair of all digital and analog instrumentation.
Students frequently gain valuable experience by becoming involved in electronics support activities.
The instrument shop offers a formal course in shop practice that most experimentally oriented graduate students take. Research is also conducted at national and international facilities such as NIST's Cold Neutron Research Facility, Oakridge National Laboratories, and Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory. Graduate students have the opportunity to travel to these locations and to interact with the international communities of physicists who do experiments at centralized laboratories.