LABORATORIES \ ELECTRON AND OPTICAL MICROSCOPY

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ELECTRON AND OPTICAL MICROSCOPY LABORATORY

 

 ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES:
 
 

 

Short description of laboratory activities TOP

Laboratory of electronics and optics microscopy was founded in 2007 within Condensed Matter Department, department whose main activity is synthesis of crystalline advanced materials. The needs imposed by the determination of elemental composition (EDAX), topography (optical and electron microscopy) the roughness, the dimensional analysis of obtained materials, our laboratory has equipment performing the last generation Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) Inspect S, Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) NanosurfR EasyScann 2, Analysette 22 FRITCH. Although recently established, the laboratory is currently in certification, offering in the next period the maximum development of the specialty equipment by training the staff, attract the new partnerships and services, and not least the promotion and involvement of students in master and lab activities.

Analysis and characterization techniques used in our laboratory TOP

 

Scanning Electron Microscope TOP

Scanning Electron Microscope  Inspect S

Manufacturer: FEI Company, Netherlands

Technical characteristics:
Source: tungsten filament
Voltage: 20 V at 30kV
Resolution: 3.0 nm in high-vacuum mode and <12 nm at 30 kV in low-vacuum mode
Magnification: 6x>1,000,000x
Visual field: the same in high-vacuum and low-vacuum mode
Focus domain: 3-99 mm 
 Fascicle   current  > 2μA

Aplications:

Scanning Electron Microscopy allows the investigations of:

  • Metallic materials;
  • Ceramics;
  • Polymeric materials;
  • Composites;
  • Powder and layers materials;
  • Implants and prosthesis;
  • Textiles and cellulose.

Characteristics of the samples analyzed

  • The samples must be conductors,
  • Nonconductor samples are coated with a thin layer of conductive metal (Au, Ag, Pt)
Results:


Surface morphology

EDAX spectrum

Short description of work techniques:

Scanning Electron Microscope is used for qualitative (imaging) and quantitative (EDAX- spectrometer with energy dispersive) analysis of the materials. Can be analyzed conductive and/or prepared samples by conventional methods (coated). X-ray microanalysis techniques used the radiation X generated by a sample bombed with electrons to identify the elementary constituents  from sample chemical composition.

Contact:

Person responsible for the device:

Atomic Force Microscope and Scanning Tunneling Microscope (type Nanosurf® EasyScan 2 Advanced Research) TOP

Manufacturer: Nanosurf® EasyScan 2

Tehnical characteristics:

  • Maximum scanning of surface  : 2048x2048 points
  • Scan image rotation: 0-3600
  • Stimultaneous display of data in charts types (line graph, color map, 3D view)
  • On-line processing funcions: mean fit, polynomial fit, derived data
  • Quick evaluation functions distance, angle, cross section
  • Data export: BMP, ASCII, CSV, etc.

 

Components:

Atomic Force Microscope (type Nanosurf® EasyScan 2 Advanced Research AFM)

The AFM scanning techniques:

  • Contact Mode
  • Tapping Mode
  • Non-contact Mode

AFM scan head 10μm:

Maximum Scan range:10μm2 (tolerance+/- 15%)
Maximum Z-range: 2μm
Drive resolution XY: 0.15 nm
Drive resolution Z: 0.027 nm

AFM scan head 110μm:

Maximum Scan range:110μm2 (tolerance+/- 10%)
Maximum Z-range: 22μm
Drive resolution XY: 1.17 nm
Drive resolution Z: 0.34nm

Scanning tunneling microscopy (type Nanosurf® EasyScan 2 Advanced Research STM)

STM scan head 500nm: Maximum Scan range 500nm

Maximum Z-range 200nm
Drive resolution Z 3pm
Drive resolution XY 7.6pm
Typical Applications:
  • thin films
  • powders
  • monocristals
  • surface roughness measurements
  • number of particles
  • particles analysis
  • particles diameter
  • particles high
  • particle volume
  • particle surface

Results:

AFM measurements, Contact AFM mode

The dimension measurement and calculation and the volume from a crystalline network
 


AFM measurements, Non- Contact AFM mode

The study of thin layer surfaces

Tridimensional representation of the studied surface with the help of NanoSurf EasyScan2 software

STM measurements



Bidimensional (2D) representation of a surface

Tridimensional (3D) representation of a surface with the help of NanoSurf EasyScan2software

Short description of the technique:

The atomic force microscope (AFM) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) allow a direct visualization of surfaces until atomic level, and obtain in this way useful informations about strucure dependence of surface in accordance with obtaining methods.

Person responsible for the device:
Grain Size Measurement TOP

Analysette 22

Manufacturer: FRITSCH GmbH – Milling and Sizing

Characteristics:
Particle’s size domain: ( 0,1 ÷  1250) μm
Automatic data processing
Applications:
To determine the particle’s size in colloidal suspensions in water, alcohols, benzines, mineral and organic oils, formaldehyde as solvents It is useful for some domains as food industry ( chocolate, creams ) , cement industry, dye industry, etc.

The basic principle of the measurement:
A laser beam collides the particles in the solution sample; the result is a diffraction pattern whose automatic analysis provides the particle’s size distribution.

Contact:

The person responsible for the device:

 

Contact: TOP

Head of Laboratory: