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

该设备的应用寻求支持更换环境扫描电子显微镜中的场发射电子源和氦离子显微镜中的场电离尖端。电子源和电子针尖是这些显微镜最重要的部件，因为它们分别提供用于探测样品的电子束和离子束。这两个显微镜代表了滑铁卢大学多学科材料研究的材料表征设施的核心。它们在高空间分辨率和大焦深下提供最先进的表面形貌成像和新材料和设备的表面电学特性分析，还使其他姊妹技术，如能量色散X射线分析，提供元素组成分析。事实上，从半导体芯片到燃料和太阳能电池，从电池材料到沥青，从碳纳米管和石墨烯到隐形眼镜和癌细胞，我们的用户已经使用这些显微镜对各种材料进行了表征。这些显微镜提供了有关新材料中纳米结构的形态、形状和元素组成、与辐射和其他处理相互作用时的结构转变以及表面电学和其他性质的关键信息。电子或离子显微镜检查通常是发现新材料和开发新设备的工作流程的第一步。因此，这些显微镜的持续运行对滑铁卢多个材料科学和工程项目的生存至关重要。*由于现有的源已经超过了它们的使用寿命(现在只产生非常低的探头电流)，所要求的源/尖端更换将重振这些显微镜，使它们能够以接近现场规范的性能运行。这些显微镜将为滑铁卢大学的80多个当地研究小组和来自加拿大其他大学的30个学术小组的研究需求提供服务。对于滑铁卢的各种材料科学和工程研究项目的持续生存来说，源/尖端的替换是至关重要的，100多个论文项目严重依赖于这些显微镜。

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.**