Combinatorial thin-film libraries
Screen a composition-processing space on one wafer.
xemX co-sputters combinatorial thin-film libraries and maps structure, composition, and functional response against wafer position. One deposition recovers the composition-property landscape instead of testing one composition at a time.
The workflow
From composition spread to a hit that survives off the gradient.
mapped positions per wafer
sputter sources per run
Lineage
A Ruhr-Universität Bochum spin-off.
Fast synthesis
Combinatorial thin-film libraries and materials informatics, from Alfred Ludwig's group at RUB.
Fast functional readout
Scanning droplet cell and scanning electrochemical cell microscopy, from Wolfgang Schuhmann's group at RUB.
Where the method works
Systems where the answer lives in a composition spread.
Piezoelectric RF filters
Bipolar plate & PTL coatings
PEM electrolyzer catalysts
Superconducting & quantum films
Wide-bandgap power devices
OER & seawater-splitting catalysts
Rare-earth-free magnets
Thermal protection coatings
What you get back
A composition-property landscape, and a hit that survives off the gradient.
The physical library
A continuous composition spread co-sputtered across one wafer under identical deposition conditions.
The mapped dataset
Structure, composition, and functional response indexed to ~342 positions. The full landscape, not a single hit.
Material systems
Metals, nitrides, oxides, high-entropy oxides, fast-ion conductors, and multicomponent alloy and catalyst systems.
Off-gradient reproduction
A selected composition reproduced as a uniform film, ready for the next validation step.