HASE (Highly Automated Sputter Equipment) is a new mobile setup developed to investigate deposition processes with synchrotron radiation. HASE is based on an ultra-high vacuum sputter deposition chamber equipped with an in-vacuum sample pick-and-place robot. This enables a fast and reliable sample change without breaking the vacuum conditions and helps to save valuable measurement time, which is required for experiments at synchrotron sources like PETRA III at DESY. An advantageous arrangement of several sputter guns, mounted on a rotative flange, gives the possibility to sputter under different deposition angles or to sputter different materials on the same substrate. The chamber is also equipped with a modular sample stage, which allows for the integration of different sample environments, such as a sample heating and cooling device. The design of HASE is unique in the flexibility. The combination of several different sputtering methods like standard deposition, glancing angle deposition, and high pressure sputter deposition combined with heating and cooling possibilities of the sample, the large exit windows, and the degree of automation facilitate many different grazing incidence X-ray scattering experiments, such as grazing incidence small and wide angle X-ray scattering, in one setup. In this paper we describe in detail the design and the performance of the new equipment and present the installation of the HASE apparatus at the Micro and Nano focus X-ray Scattering beamline (MiNaXS) at PETRA III. Furthermore, we describe the measurement options and present some selected results. The HASE setup has been successfully commissioned and is now available for users.

Ionic conductivity in relation to the morphology of lithium-doped high-molecular-weight polystyrene-block-polyethylene oxide (PS-b-PEO) diblock copolymer films was investigated as solid-state membranes for lithium-ion batteries. The tendency of the polyethylene (PEO) block to crystallize was highly suppressed by increasing both the salt-doping level and the temperature. The PEO crystallites completely vanished at a salt-doping ratio of Li/EO>0.08, at which the PEO segments were hindered from entering the crystalline unit of the PEO chain. A kinetically trapped lamella morphology of PS-b-PEO was observed, due to PEO crystallization. The increase in the lamella spacing with increasing salt concentration was attributed to the conformation of the PEO chain rather than the volume contribution of the salt or the previously reported increase in the effective interaction parameter. Upon loading the salt, the PEO chains changed from a compact/highly folded conformation to an amorphous/expanded-like conformation. The ionic conductivity was enhanced by amorphization of PEO and thereby the mobility of the PEO blocks increased upon increasing the salt-doping level.

Short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) detection systems are increasingly in demand for surveillance, reconnaissance, and remote sensing applications. Eye-safe SWIR lasers can be utilized for active imaging systems with high image contrast and long detection range. The gated-viewing (GV) technique using short-pulse lasers and fast-gated cameras in the nanosecond range enables utilizing the distance information in addition to the signal intensity of the acquired images. The InGaAs material system is very well suited for the fabrication of high-performance SWIR photodetectors providing a typical cutoff wavelength of 1.7 μm, which covers the emission lines of available laser sources at typical telecom wavelengths around 1.55 μm. However, the usually short integration times needed for GV leads to very small photosignals. We report on the development of SWIR avalanche photodetector (APD) arrays with 640 × 512 pixels and 15 μm pixel pitch based on the InGaAs material system. The InGaAs-APD focal plane arrays have been successfully integrated into SWIR cameras which yield gain values of M ≈ 10 on camera level at a reverse bias voltage around 21 V and are the first InGaAs-based SWIR cameras worldwide providing a 640 × 512 image format and utilizing avalanche gain for signal amplification. The camera performance is demonstrated by SWIR laser GV sample images.