Electron Microscopy

by lcekst01 — last modified Feb 08, 2011 09:25 AM

Information on the Electron Microscopy Facility

The facility has six electron microscopes
with EDS capability several with digital image capture.

$Diffraction$

The Department acquired a new Scanning Electron Microscope which also has the ability to take digital images. The Tescan Vega-II Scanning Electron Microscope is a state of the art, fully PC controlled SEM. It has Microsoft Windows XP Software and is easy to use. The scope is password protected and has multi-level user account availability. The specimen chamber is large and fully rotating and can hold up to five specimens. It has a clean, fast turbomolecular pump that allows for easy specimen changes. Comprehensive software makes image archiving, measurements, processing and analysis fast and simple. Imagine is very good at both high and low magnifications with very low magnification available for specimen orientation. Digital images may be archived or transported on flash drive or CD.
Philips CM-12 Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope (STEM), with an Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS), elemental mapping, and digital image acquisition. The microscope has a goniometer stage with tilt-rotation and low background holders. Electron diffraction studies are routinely performed on this instrument.
Three Philips CM-10 Transmission Electron Microscopes (TEM) which are used by trained microscopists for routine micrographs. These microscopes have goniometer stages. A new digital camera was installed on the Philips CM 10 Transmission Electron Microscope. The camera is capable of taking 16 mega pixel pictures. The camera includes an image processing software package with fully-featured image analysis, file processing, and display/printer controls combined into a single program. The camer is low noise, and a lens coupling ensures easy upgrades, maintenance, the absence of pixel defects, and dramatically reduced system cost. Film, paper, chemicals, and time spent in the dark room are no longer necessary. Turnaround time of samples will be increased, and you can make a correction within seconds rather than the next day, as with film. The new digital camera will provide capabilities difficult or impossible to archive with film.