The STM used in our laboratory does not allow annealing temperatures high enough for our palladium experiment. An external heating device was designed and constructed to complement the internal heating unit in the STM. The ITAD or Infra-red Thermal Annealing Device, shown below, consists of a 250 W projector bulb in a Ellipsoidal Reflector which focuses the light at a point roughly 10 cm from the end of the mirror.

To minimise heat absorption by the window, a UV grade Sapphire viewport was used. This reduces the power loss by 60%. The unit tended to dramatically heat up the surrouding metal and thus the window. This was due to heat being trapped inside the unit. Several holes were drilled into the holder as shown and a CPU fan was installed to blow air onto the mirror. The heat build up decreased substantially.

Operating both heating unit together at 2/3 their power output for 5 minutes, enabled sample temperaures of approximately 950K to be reached, an increase of over 200K.

The electrical characteristics of condensed layers of propyltrimethoxysilane (PTMS) on iron oxide substrates needed to be investigated. A novel testing apparatus was developed in the Physics Department at The University of Newcastle. The device measures the Force exerted on an insulating film by pressing a spherically conducting stainless steel ballbearing down on it. A piezo device measure the pressure exerted by the ball bearing, and a precise determination of the Force. By placing a voltage across the insulating film, we can investigate the electrical characteristics of the film, and determine the dielectric constant and breakdown strength. The results on PTMS are here.