North Campus Instruments - The Philips XL30FEG

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 steps)

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.

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. 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. Additional Resources: SEM Class Lecture Notes by John F. Mansfield by CJW Flash Animations Zoom in and out on an SEM sample Contrast mechanisms arising from sample topography in the SEM Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy - how the x-rays are generated