Acquisition of a Variable Pressure Scanning Electron Microscope for Materials Research and Education

犹他大学材料科学与工程系运营着一个多用户电子显微镜设施。 该设施是犹他大学主校区的主要用户设施。 来自十个院系和四所学院的大约十五名教员依靠该设施进行研究。 所有类别的材料都经过检查，包括聚合物、陶瓷、金属和半导体。除了满足研究需求外，该设施还满足教育需求。 许多正式课程在其实验室项目中使用 SEM。 此外，研究生培训是该实验室的一个主要目标。该奖项将为购买一台新型、最先进的变压扫描电子显微镜（SEM）提供部分支持，以满足犹他大学教师当前和未来的研究需求。 该设备将比现有设备提供改进和扩展的功能。 例如，所提出的设备具有轻元素X射线检测能力，并将获得X射线图。 可变压力（或低真空）功能在该实验室中特别有用，因为可以在不应用导电涂层的情况下检查聚合物和陶瓷等非导电样品。 这确保了材料的任何特征都不会被掩盖。 此外，如果没有涂层，成分分析将更加可靠，因为涂层可以形成峰重叠和/或吸收低能量 X 射线。该设备的教育优势包括学生使用最先进的仪器。 许多正式课程将在其实验室项目中使用 SE。 研究生毕业生将在进入职场时更好地分析材料和解决问题。 该项目的另一个方面是开发一个可通过网络访问的实验室，为远程学生提供访问高价技术设备的机会。 这项工作将与爱荷华州立大学的一个 NSF 资助项目合作进行。***该设备为学生和教师提供了一个独特的机会，以显着方式加强合作研究和教育活动。

The Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Utah operates a multi-user electron microscopy facility. This facility is the primary user facility for the main University of Utah campus. Approximately fifteen faculty from ten departments and four colleges rely on the facility for their research. All classes of materials are examined, including polymers, ceramics, metals, and semiconductors.In addition to serving research needs, the facility also serves educational needs. Numerous formal courses utilize the SEM in their laboratory projects. Additionally, graduate student training is a major objective of the laboratory.This award will provide partial support for the acquisition of a new, state-of-the-art variable pressure scanning electron microscope (SEM) to meet the current and future research needs of faculty at the University of Utah. this equipment will provide improved and expanded capabilities over what is now available. For example, the proposed equipment has light element x-ray detection capabilities, and will obtain x-ray maps. The variable pressure (or low vacuum) feature is especially useful in this laboratory, as non-conducting samples such as polymers and ceramics can be examined without application of a conducting coating. This ensures that no features of the material will be masked. Furthermore, compositional analysis will be more reliable without a coating, as the coating can crate peak overlap and/or absorb low energy x-rays.The educational benefits of this equipment include student use of state-of-the-art instrumentation. Numerous formal courses will utilize the SE in their laboratory projects. GGraduates will enter the work force better prepared to analyze materials and to solve problems. An additional aspect of this project is the development of a web-accessible laboratory, providing remote students with access to high priced technological equipment. This work will be conducted in collaboration with an NSF-funded project at the Iowa State University.***This equipment provides a unique opportunity for students and faculty to enhance collaborative research and educational activities in a significant manner.