Critical Source Replacements for an Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope and a Helium Ion Microscope

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This equipment application seeks the support for replacement of the field emission electron source in an environmental scanning electron microscope and of a field ionization tip in a helium ion microscope. The electron source and tip are the most essential parts of these microscopes because they provide the respective electron beam and ion beam for probing the samples. These two microscopes represent the core of the materials characterization facility for multidisciplinary materials research at the University of Waterloo. They provide state of the art imaging of the surface morphology and analysis of the surface electrical properties of new materials and devices at high spatial resolution and large depth of focus, and they also enable other sister techniques such as energy dispersive X-ray analysis to provide elemental composition analysis. Indeed, a wide range of materials, from semiconductor chips to fuel and solar cells to battery materials to bitumen to carbon nanotubes and graphenes to contact lens and to cancer cells, have been characterized using these microscopes by our users. These microscopes provide crucial information about the morphology, shapes, and elemental compositions of the nanostructures in new materials, structural transformation upon interaction with radiation and other processing, and surface electrical and other properties. Examination by electron or ion microscopy is often the very first step of the work flow in discovery of new materials and development of new devices. Continued functioning of these microscopes is therefore crucial to the survival of multiple materials science and engineering programs at Waterloo.******As the existing sources have already exceeded their useful lifetime (now generating only very low probe currents), the requested source/tip replacements will revive these microscopes and enable them to operate at near spec-on-site performance. These microscopes will serve the research needs of over 80 local research groups at the University of Waterloo and 30 academic groups from other Canadian universities. The source/tip replacements are critically needed for the continued survival of the diverse materials science and engineering research programs at Waterloo and over 100 thesis projects critically depend on these microscopes.**