Of the various equipment we have at our disposal, four in particular stand out. One is a self-contained computerized excitation/emission vacuum spectrometer, custom designed and built by McPherson, Inc., with both continuous and pulsed excitation sources and cryogenic capabilities for measurement down to liquid He temperatures. With operating range down to 130 nm, this instrument can measure the optical properties of both emitting center and host lattice at energies greater than the bandgap, to explore the energy transfer properties. Equally important for this proposal is a Philips X-ray generator, which we have configured as an excitation source for the evaluation of X-ray scintillators and measurements of self-absorption and surface-related phenomena. This instrument is also equipped with a custom-built McPherson vacuum monochromator. Another facility which we recently acquired is a TMA Scatterometer made by Schmitt Industries. It is an instrument which measures the angular distribution of He-Ne laser light over close to 360 degree. It has an amazing dynamic range of over 12 orders of magnitude and can be used for quantifying the degree of transparency of a ceramic sample. It can also be adapted to the measurements of coherent back scattering giving information on the mean free path of multiply scattered light in ceramics. Finally, we have access to a Centorr Vacuum Hot Pressing furnace with 2400 C and 10-ton load capability for fabrication of ceramic components, and a Centorr 2500 C vacuum/controlled-atmosphere electric furnace with programmable controller for pressureless sintering and post-fabrication treatment.

Other relevant equipment include (but are not limited to):

• Computer-controlled 0.5 m Jarrell Ash monochromator for emission spectroscopy
• Computer controlled 0.5m Spex double monochromator
• Computer-controlled transient recorder capable of 10 ns sampling resolution for time-resolved spectroscopy and decay measurements
• Stanford Research Systems two-channel boxcar integrator for measurement of time-resolved spectroscopy, decay rates, and optical gains
• Canberra System 100 for photon counting, time-correlated decay measurements and scintillator evaluation
• GE 1000 dental X-ray system with two heads
• EGG Princeton Applied Research Optical Multichannel Analyzer OMA III
• Pulsed nitrogen and dye lasers
• BMC Cryosystems LTS-22 closed cycle helium optical dewar (range 30-350 K)
• Spex 1680 0.22 m Double UV Spectrometer with stepping motor
• Vertical 1800 C tube furnace with controlled atmosphere, for synthesis of refractory powders
• Programmable 1200 C muffle furnace
• Cutting and polishing equipment, chemical hoods, and Newport optical tables
• Golden Engineering pulsed X-ray source