High Resolution Chemical Microscopy for Materials Science

Abstract

Abstract : This project is for purchase and installation of a high resolution analytical transmission electron microscope. The microscope has been delivered, installed in a specially prepared laboratory area, and thoroughly checked out. It met all performance test and was formally accepted on September 1, 2003, two weeks after the final peripheral hardware was installed by the manufacturer and checked out successfully. The start date for the project was June 1, 2000. The microscope chosen for purchase after a rigorous evaluation process was a JEOL 2010F. It is a 200kV TEM/STEM microscope, capable of being fined with electron energy loss and energy dispersive characteristic x-ray spectrometers, and special STEM detectors, to transform it from an ordinary transmission to an analytical scope. The basic microscope was delivered on September 28, 2001, from Japan, where it was manufactured. It was modified at the factory during construction so that two Seiko Turbomolecular vacuum pumps evacuate the column and viewing chamber. Ion pumps evacuate the field emission electron gun. Scroll pumps are used for all backing. Thus the vacuum system is completely dry with no oil diffusion or oil-sealed rotary mechanical pumps used. This was a new procedure adopted by the manufacturer, after much discussion with us and a colleague at AT&T Bell Labs, to minimize carbon contamination on the specimen during small probe STEM analytical operation. I*t was successful, and is now offered as a special extra cost option on currently ordered scopes.