Electron microprobe

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The proposed electron microprobe is an instrument for the chemical analysis of sampleswith high spatial resolution and detection limits down to the 10 ppm range. It is requestedas replacement for an old and somewhat outdated instrument, which was acquired in2001. The latter instrument was already the replacement for a previous machine thatwas in operation since 1989.The electron microprobe will be located at Bayerisches Geoinstitut (BGI), a researchcenter at Bayreuth University. BGI is generally considered to be one of the world´sleading institutions in high-pressure research in Earth sciences. The mission of theinstitute is to study the structure and dynamics of the Earth and of planets by experimentsin the laboratory. Current areas of active research include the formation and earlyevolution of the Earth and of the terrestrial planets, the mass transport processes insubduction zones, rheology and dynamics of the Earth´s mantle, the composition ofEarth´s core, the formation of critical metal deposits, and experimental volcanology. Theanalysis of the chemical composition of samples by electron microprobe is central tomost research projects and the instrument is usually in automatic operation 24 hours perday. Since 2020, an additional research group in geochemistry and cosmochemistry hasbeen established at BGI, which complements the experimental research by chemicalanalyses of terrestrial and extra-terrestrial samples. Moreover, the electron microprobefacility, as the only instrument of this kind in Bayreuth, provides analytical services forthe entire university, including in particular for the departments of chemistry,environmental sciences, and materials science.