All equipment status updates.
We are increasing the hourly fee for internal use of the S-TEM to $70/hr. This fee will help us offset the service contract cost and is consistent with fees for the same or similar equipment at other universities. The new fee will take effect on October 1st.
Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.
There have been a few problems getting thumbdrives to eject on the FESEM PC. What I did that worked is to make sure that Explorer is not pointing to your data on the FESEM PC, then highlight your USB drive in the list, right click and select Eject.
The monitor failed on the FESEM and I moved one from another lab. Only problem is that it is a wide screen. Images on the monitor appear stretched but the images you save will not be stretched. We will receive a proper replacement tomorrow.
I will loosen up the 2 hour time limit constraints on SEM sign-up time to 4 hours. The only problem we have ever had is when users block large blocks of time for several days during a week. We need to make sure that everyone has access to the SEMs when needed.
Remember that evening hours are available to unrestricted users (who have swipe access to the lab doors).
The electronic logbook is working. But, just in case we have problems again, please use both the paper logbook and the electronic version too.
Materials Science and Engineering Seminar
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Michigan Technological University
Abstract: This talk presents an overview of state-of-the-art capabilities of the aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope (ac-STEM) at ACMAL, Michigan Tech. The FEI Titan Themis microscope we have here is one of a kind in the whole nation in terms of capabilities.
Tuesday, October 22 at 11:00 am to 12:00 pm
Minerals and Materials Engineering Building (M&M), 610
1400 Townsend Drive, Houghton, MI 49931
The ESEM is online. We repaired the broken BSE detector. As far as I know everything is working properly.
We are seeing some yellow spots in dark areas on the FESEM screen, but they go away before acquiring an image. Let me know if you start seeing distortion in your acquired images. I’ll work on getting Hitachi service here to repair.
A part failed in the deposition gun – the depo gun is unusable. I ordered the repair part but it might take up to 80 days to arrive.
The FIB can be used for milling but we cannot do any lift-out work until the depo gun is working.
There is a problem with the ESEM. It can’t be used until we can look at it on Monday.