Charlene will start today with prep and finish tomorrow.
ACMAL hours/staffing over the 2 weeks of holidays looks like this:
The university will be closed on Dec 24, 25 and Dec 31, Jan 1. The building will be locked on those days. The ACMAL labs will be open on the other days, but more like 9 – 10am and closed at 5pm.
Unrestricted users will have unlimited access to the building and labs. Restricted users have access during the other days. We ask that newly trained users make appointments during the period so someone is near in case there are troubles.
Ed Laitila and Owen Mills will be out the entire 2 week period. Pinaki Mukherjee will be in during all but the 4 holidays. Liz Miller and Aleister Kerr will be available by appointment. Tim Leftwich will be here part of the 2 weeks – its best to make appointment with him.
If there are problems contact us. Our contact information is:
Owen 906-369-1875
Ed 906-369-2041
Liz 906-370-6538
Aleister 520-576-3557
Pinaki 402-802-3154
Tim 804-691-3243
The service engineer replaced the objective aperture and did a bake treatment on the electron gun. He realigned the scope at 1, 5, 10 and 20kV. The resolution is really good now.
I’m taking the FESEM EDS detector to be serviced Thursday so I’m taking it off today. I’ll update you on the status.
We are going to bake the gun chamber overnight, so the microscope cannot be used. It should be up and running tomorrow morning by 10 am.
The field service engineer will install a new objective aperture in the FESEM this morning. The scope should be back online after lunch.
I’m having service done on the FESEM EDS detector over the holidays. It should be back online before the semester begins.
Please plan accordingly.
Just to clarify, the FESEM will be usable while the EDS detector is being serviced.
There was a report of no EDS spectra on the Aztek system. On examination we found 2 user-correctable issues. First, the backscatter detector was blocking part of the x-ray signal from reaching the detector. It was not in the correct orientation. Then, and this is the biggest issue, the Process Time was set to 2 and it should be on 5. Process Time 2 provides narrower peaks (energy resolution) but reduces the deadtime (count rate). The SOP lists 5 as the default position. If you change it, please return to 5 when your work is complete.
The EDS works fine and is ready to use.
Ready to use.
There is a problem with the ESEM software/computer. Don’t use it. We’ll get it back online tomorrow.