Acquisition of Scanning Electron Microscope For A Multi-User Facility

该提案要求提供配套资金，为康涅狄格大学斯托尔斯校区的多用途设施购买场发射扫描电子显微镜（FESEM）。 拟议的仪器将取代现有的16岁的FESEM，这是大量使用，但现在已经过时，越来越难以维护。 该仪器将提供给康涅狄格大学主校区内外的调查人员。 在过去五年中，有83人使用了现有的FESEM。 所要求的仪器将确保该机构继续提供高分辨率扫描电子显微镜，用于研究和培训。 它还将引入现有仪器所不具备的有用功能。 特别是，可变的扫描速率和高分辨率低电压操作将允许高放大倍数的辐射敏感材料和未涂覆的样品难以或不可能在现有的仪器研究。 其他改进，如高真空枪设计，数字控制电子设备，以及数字图像采集和重放的能力，将大大方便操作和维护，增加用户的吞吐量，降低摄影成本。 该工具将用于执行六个主要用户的计划或正在进行的项目。 这些研究包括寄生蠕虫的系统发育关系、发育在植物进化和生态学中的作用、神经发生过程中的细胞死亡、热休克对肾功能的影响、土地利用对湖泊浮游生物多样性的影响、昆虫发育中的幼虫和蛹形态。 根据该设施以往的经验，预计所要求的仪器也将在今后几年中被许多其他项目大量使用。

This proposal requests matching funds to purchase a Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) for the a multi-use facility at the University of Connecticut Storrs Campus. The proposed instrumentation will replace an existing 16 year old FESEM which is heavily used, but is now out of date and increasingly difficult to maintain. The instrument will be available to investigators within and outside of the main campus of the University of Connecticut. Over the past five years 83 individuals have used the existing FESEM. The requested instrument will ensure continued availability of high resolution scanning electron microscopy for research and training at this institution. It will also introduce useful capabilities not available on the existing instrument. In particular, variable scan rates and high resolution low voltage operation will permit high magnification imagine of radiation sensitive material and uncoated samples difficult or impossible to study in the existing instrument. Other improvements such as high vacuum gun design, digital control electronics, and capabilities for digital image acquisition and replay, will greatly facilitate operation and maintenance, increase throughput for users and reduce photographic costs. This instrument will be used to carry out planned or ongoing projects of six major users. These include investigations of phylogenetic relationships of parasitic worms, the role of development in evolution and ecology of plants, cell death during neurogenesis, effects of heat shock on renal function, effects of land use on plankton biodiversity in lakes, larval and pupal morphology in insect development. It is expected, based on previous experience at this facility, that the requested instrument will also be heavily used by many additional projects in years to come.