Instruments & labs

Facilities

From assembling atomically thin heterostructures to probing them with light at cryogenic temperatures and femtosecond timescales, our labs are open to researchers worldwide through the Molecular Foundry user program.

Measurement

Optics Labs

Three labs across Berkeley Lab. See them on the map →

  • Building 67 · Molecular Foundry

    Cryogenic time-resolved optical microscopy & spectroscopy

    Ultrafast, spatially resolved optical measurements of excitons, phonons and charge in 2D heterostructures, down to cryogenic temperatures.

  • Building 66

    Quantum optics

    Quantum optics labs with fiber connections to the ion traps at QuantNet, linking solid-state emitters to Berkeley Lab’s quantum network testbed.

  • Building 62

    Cryogenic ultrafast magneto-optical microscopy & spectroscopy

    Time-resolved magneto-optical measurements at low temperature and in magnetic field, for spin and valley physics in atomically thin materials.

Sample fabrication

Micromechanical Stackers

Our micromechanical stackers assemble van der Waals heterostructures layer by layer: picking up exfoliated flakes of graphene, hBN, transition metal dichalcogenides and other 2D materials, aligning them, and building clean, twist-controlled stacks ready for spectroscopy and microscopy. We run three:

  • Glovebox stacker: assembly under inert atmosphere for air-sensitive materials
  • Ambient stacker: everyday assembly of air-stable heterostructures
  • Robotic stacker: a robot arm in a nitrogen box with tunable humidity, for experimenting with physical AI in sample fabrication