An indigenously developed electronic control system for Langmuir-Blodgett film deposition set-up

An indigenous and simple electronic control system for Langmuir-Blodgett (L B) film deposition set-up has been developed. This set-up consists of a mic rostepping circuit to drive the stepper motors with precision and smooth mo tion, essential for controlled movement of the barriers and substrate in th e LB set-up. Linear variable differential transformer (LVDT)-based displace ment measuring device has been developed and used to measure the surface pr essure of the monolayer material spread on the water surface. A control pro gram is written which incorporates all operational modes required to drive the set-up and to acquire the data in situ using a set of user-friendly com mands. This control set-up has been successfully used to plot the pressure- area isotherm of various amphiphilic compounds-such as ferric stearate, zin c arachidate etc. and for deposition of ordered LB films of ferric stearate .