Electron Microscopy

Electron microscopy

The Imaging Facility's electron microscopy platform is a Zeiss Crossbeam 550, which combines a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with a focussed ion beam (FIB).  This flexible system can be used for scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Scanning Transmission EM (STEM), Focussed Ion Beam-SEM (FIB-SEM) and Array Tomography (AT). These latter two techniques generate EM data in three dimensions and are therefore referred to as volume EM (vEM) methods.

Our System:

Zeiss CrossBeam 550 FIB SEM

Electron Column

Gemini 2 SEM column

Resolution: 0.7 nm at 30 kV (STEM mode), 1.6 nm at 1 kV (SEM mode)

Magnification: 12x - 2,000,000x (SEM)

Accelerating Voltage: 0.02 - 30 kV (SEM)

Probe Current: 10 pA to 283 nA (SEM)

FIB Column

Capella FIB column

Resolution: 3 nm at 30kV (FIB)

Magnification: 300x - 500,000x (FIB)

Accelerating Voltage: 0.5 – 30 kV (FIB)

Probe Current: 1 pA to 100 nA (FIB)

Detectors

SE2 (secondary electron)

InLens (secondary electron detector within column)

EsB (energy-selective backscattered electron within column)

BSD (backscattered electron, retractable)

STEM (scanning transmission electron microscopy, retractable)

Gas injection system:

Platinum

Carbon

FIB SEM