Critical Accessories to put a Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscope in User Service

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This equipment application seeks the support for three critically needed accessories to enable a state-of-the-art field-emission scanning electron microscope (SEM) to be used not just as an advanced imaging tool but also as a powerful nanoanalytical tool for quantitative elemental analysis. Equipped with a new second-generation Gemini-II electron optics column and multiple advanced detector systems, the Zeiss Merlin SEM is a powerful, ultrahigh resolution imaging tool. With its fine beam spot and high current capability, the new microscope is particularly well suited to the requested energy-dispersive X-ray analysis system, allowing the user to map the elemental composition of the near-surface with high precision and high speed. This capability will significantly improve the composition analysis of the nanomaterials on hand. With the requested accessories, the new SEM system will not only relieve the huge user backlog on our existing 15-years-old field-emission SEM system on campus, it will also provide significant improvement in elemental quantification of new materials, providing detailed composition maps that are not possible with our existing SEM system. The present tool will serve the research needs of over 75 local research groups from the University of Waterloo and 30 academic groups from other Canadian universities. This request will also provide a load-lock system to allow fast sample interchange (that will improve the efficiency and increase the number of users served) and an accounting software (that will enable us to effectively perform cost recovery so that the facility can be run in a revenue-neutral fashion). The request is critically needed for the continued survival of the diverse materials science and engineering research programs at Waterloo (and at least 30 thesis projects depend on this instrument).