Philips XL30 FEG
Location: 426 Space Research Building
Contact: John Mansfield or Kai Sun
Instructions: Philips XL30FEG PDF Handbook
Acknowledgments: This instrument was funded from a variety of sources, but the largest portion of the funds came from an AFSOR MURI headed by Ron Gibala (DOD-G-F49620-93-1-0289, Center for Advanced Structural Metallic Materials). Other monies were provided by the College of Engineering and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
Scanning Electron Microscopy: The Philips XL30 Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) is one of a generation of SEMs that is completely controlled from a computer workstation. The XL series instruments are controlled by a personal computer running Microsoft Windows NT. The EMAL instrument employs a thermally assisted Schottky field emission gun for high intensity probe formation. This makes the instrument ideal for both imaging and microanalysis.
Applications
- SEM, BSE imaging, Electron Backscattering Patterns, XEDS
Accelerating Voltage
- 0.5 to 3.0 kV (100 V steps)
- 3.0 to 30 kV (1 kV st
Filament
- Zirconated Tungsten
Vacuum
- ~10^-6 torr in sample chamber
Dectectors
- Imaging: Everhart-Thornley & Solid State Backscatter Detector
- XEDS: UTW Si-Li Solid State X-ray Detector (with integrated EDAX Phoenix XEDS system)
- OIM: TexSEM Laboratories OIM System
Magnification
- 20 - 1,000,000x
SEM Resolution
- 2.0nm at 30kV
- 5.0nm at 1kV
Sample Requirements
- Samples must be compatible with high vacuum, i.e. clean and dry. Samples should be handled with tweezers or gloves.
- A large range of sample sizes will fit into the chamber up to a limit of about 6 inches in diameter and/or ~ 2 inches tall. You may not be able to access the entire area of a very wide sample. Ask for assistance if you are approaching the limits.
- Samples need to be conductive. Semi-conductors are OK. Non-conductive samples should be coated with a conductive layer. Conductive samples surrounded by a non-conducting medium should be provided a conductive path to the SEM stub.
SEM Class Lecture Notes
Flash Animations
Muralidharan Ramachandran, a PhD student in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of Toledo, working in the group of Abdul-Majeed Azad. He is examining the compositions of novel ceramics for use as solid electrolytes in intermediate temperature-solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFC) with the XL30FEG SEM.