Acquisition of Scanning Electron Microscope For A Multi-User Facility

该提案要求提供相应的资金，为康涅狄格大学斯托尔斯校区的一个多用途设施购买一台场发射扫描电子显微镜(FESEM)。拟议的仪器将取代现有的已有16年历史的FESEM，该FESEM已大量使用，但现在已过时，越来越难以维护。康涅狄格大学主校区内外的调查人员都可以使用该仪器。在过去五年中，已有83人使用了现有的FESEM。所要求的仪器将确保继续获得高分辨率扫描电子显微镜，用于该机构的研究和培训。它还将引入现有仪器无法提供的有用功能。特别是，可变的扫描速率和高分辨率的低电压操作将允许在现有仪器中难以或不可能研究辐射敏感材料和未涂层样品的高倍率成像。其他改进，如高真空喷枪设计，数字控制电子设备，以及数字图像采集和回放能力，将极大地方便操作和维护，增加用户的吞吐量，并降低摄影成本。这一工具将用于执行六个主要用户的已规划或正在进行的项目。这些研究包括寄生虫的系统发育关系、植物发育在进化和生态中的作用、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幼虫形态。根据该设施以往的经验，预计今后几年许多其他项目也将大量使用所要求的仪器。

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 The proposed instrumentation will replace an existing 16 year old FESEM which is heavily used, but is now out of date and increasingly difficult to maintain.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.