Participating Shared Facilities
AlloSphere Research Facility
The AlloSphere is a one-of-a-kind, immersive 3D scientific instrument and research laboratory. Designed as a large-scale spherical pavilion, it integrates high-resolution visual and sonic data to enable researchers to "climb inside" and explore complex data at a human scale. It is widely used for multi-dimensional data visualization, scientific research in fields like nanotechnology and medicine, and artistic exploration.
Facility Link: https://allosphere.ucsb.edu
Location: Elings Hall
Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration
Our mission is to preserve and enhance our natural heritage through leading biodiversity research, conservation, and ecological restoration, including stewardship of campus lands, organismal biology, and preservation of natural history collections.
Facility Link: https://ccber.ucsb.edu
Location: Harder South 578
UCSB Natural History Collections
The UCSB Natural History Collections are a multi-taxa research resource of about 1 million specimens supporting teaching, research, and public engagement, with staff expertise in organismal biology. They provide research vouchering to fulfill data management plan and permitting requirements, along with biodiversity data management resources for identification, historical baselines, bioinspiration and design/engineering applications, and studies of biodiversity change, and include the Herbarium, Invertebrate Zoology, and Vertebrate Zoology collections.
CNSI Facilities – Innovation Workshop, Quantum Structures Facility (QSF), Biological Nanostructures Laboratory
Innovation Workshop: The CNSI Innovation Workshop – a makerspace facility – enables its users to build and test prototypes of their inventions. The Workshop fills a vital gap in campus resources: a place where UCSB researchers and employees from local companies can fabricate and test their ideas with the support of experienced staff.
Facility Link: Innovation | California NanoSystems Institute
Location: Elings
Biological Nanostructures Laboratory: The BNL provides access to complex, high value instrumentation to support and enhance interdisciplinary research at the interface of life science and engineering, and scientific expertise in the theory, operation, and analysis of data generated from such instruments.
Facility Link: Biological Nanostructures Laboratory | California NanoSystems Institute
Location: Elings
Quantum Structures Facility (QSF): Formerly known as the CNSI Nanostructures Cleanroom Facility (NCF), the Quantum Structures Facility (QSF) features cleanroom-based tool sets and processes that complement research in quantum materials and devices enabling unique capabilities in the pursuit of controlling and manipulating materials at the nanoscale.
Facility Link: Quantum Structures Facility (QSF) | California NanoSystems Institute
Location: Elings
Laser Ablation Mass Spectrometry Lab
Part of the Preston Cloud Lab, the Laser-Ablation Split-Stream (LASS) facility provides advanced analytical capabilities for simultaneous geochronology and trace-element geochemistry. The lab uses high-precision ICP-MS (Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry) and laser ablation systems to analyze solid materials, allowing for in-situ dating and elemental characterization of minerals with high spatial resolution.
Facility Link: https://petrochronology.geol.ucsb.edu
Location: Cloud Lab
Microscopy and Microanalysis Facility
Managed by the Materials Department, this facility is a premier center for materials characterization. It houses an extensive suite of state-of-the-art instruments, including transmission electron microscopes (TEM), focused ion beam (FIB) systems, scanning electron microscopes (SEM), and atomic force microscopes (AFM), as well as XPS and SIMS systems. It serves the broader campus and community for advanced sample preparation and high-end data analysis.
Facility Link: https://www.cnsi.ucsb.edu/facilities/microscopy-microanalysis
Location: Elings Hall
Nanofabrication Facility
The UCSB Nanofabrication Facility provides a world-class cleanroom environment (Class 100 and 1000) for micro- and nano-scale processing. Specializing in compound semiconductor-based device fabrication, the facility offers a comprehensive range of lithography, etching, and deposition tools. It supports research in electronics, photonics, and quantum materials for both academic and industrial users.
Facility Link: https://nanofab.ucsb.edu
Location: ESB
NRI-MCDB Microscopy Facility
Founded in 1990, is jointly maintained by the Neuroscience Research Institute and the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The Facility’s mission is to promote microscopy education and facilitate microscopy in research for research groups campuswide. To achieve this mission the Facility houses state-of-the-art instruments, supports expert full-time support staff and provides individual, course and workshop based training in microscopy.
Facility Link: NRI-MCDB Microscopy Facility | UC Santa Barbara
Location: Bio2
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR)
The NMR Facility in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry provides high-resolution, solution-state NMR spectroscopy services for molecular structure and function analysis. The lab is equipped with several spectrometers ranging from 400 MHz to 600 MHz, including state-of-the-art Bruker systems with cryoprobes for enhanced sensitivity. It supports a wide range of research in organic, inorganic, and biomolecular chemistry.
Facility Link: https://nmr.chem.ucsb.edu
Location: Physical Sciences Building North (PSBN)
Optical Characterization Facility
The Optical Characterization Facility (OCF) is a joint spectroscopic laboratory managed by the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Center for Polymers and Organic Solids (CPOS). It offers advanced optical spectroscopy techniques, including time-resolved and steady-state measurements, to assist researchers in studying the electronic and optical properties of materials.
Facility Link: https://ocf.chem.ucsb.edu
Location: PSBN
Polymer Facility
With equipment for the synthesis of polymers, and monomers (Schlenk lines) as well as polymer analysis equipment: TA Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) Q2000 temp. -150 °C to 400 °C, (check thermal stability of your sample by TGA) Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) using chloroform with 0.25% TEA as a solvent (Analytical and Preparative), GPC using DMF with 0.1% of LiBr as a solvent, Two Microwave Reactors (Biotage and CEM), Two Rheometers (with the oven and the water bath), Wyatt DynaPro NanoStar DLS, Nano ITC (Isothermal Titration Calorimeter), and Gas Chromatograph (GC).
Facility Link: Overview | Material Research Laboratory
Location: MRL
Spectroscopy Facility
The Spectroscopy facility of Materials Research Laboratory is the home to the state-of-the-art magnetic resonance instruments in solution NMR, solid-state NMR, MRI, Rheo-NMR, PFG-Diffusion, DNP-NMR, and EPR. Applications range from structure determination, imaging, dynamics/kinetics monitoring, to physical property measurement of a variety of sample systems from inorganic, organic, biological, to their hybrids, and from small molecules to macromolecules like proteins and polymers.
Facility Link: Overview | Material Research Laboratory
Location: MRL
TEMPO Facility
The MRL TEMPO Laboratory has advanced instrumentation for the characterization of materials and chemical samples. A wide range of instrumentation is available for Thermal, Electronic/Elemental, Magnetic, Porosity, and Optical measurements.
Facility Link: Material Research Laboratory
Location: MRL
Terahertz Facility
Part of the Institute of Terahertz Science and Technology (ITST), this facility offers unique instrumentation for exploring the terahertz and sub-terahertz range of the electromagnetic spectrum. It features UCSB’s high-power Free Electron Lasers (FELs) and time-domain spectrometers, enabling the study of synthetic and biological materials in both solution and solid states.
Facility Link: https://mrlweb.mrl.ucsb.edu/terahertz-facility
Location: Broida Hall
X-Ray Facility
The MRL X-ray Facility provides state-of-the-art x-ray diffraction tools for characterizing structural properties of a wide range of materials including metals and composites, polymers and biological materials, and electronic and optoelectronic materials in the length scale range of 0.1 nm - 100 nm.
Facility Link: Welcome to the X-Ray Facility | Material Research Laboratory
Location: Elings Halal