FESEM is down

The intermittent vacuum display problem reappeared this morning. The manufacturer has given me a few tests to make. I’ll do that and report the information. Hopefully we will isolate the problem and make a repair. I will restart the system which in the past worked for a period of time. I’ll restart the system and it should be ready to operate by 1pm today.

FESEM back online

The FESEM is back online this morning. The vacuum has recovered.

This problem – the vacuum panel shutting off – has occurred a few times but it comes back on. It is hard for the service engineer to repair the problem when it comes back and works fine.

So, the scope is online and ready to use.

S-TEM Provides Insight to Alloy Behavior

S-TEM MappingMaterials Science doctoral candidate Deji Fadayomi, and professors Paul Sanders and Gregory Odegard, are working on these precipitation-strengthening mechanisms in aluminum-based alloys. This atomic-resolution image and elemental maps of precipitates were obtained in aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope (AC-STEM) at Michigan Tech’s Applied Chemical and Morphological Analysis Laboratory (ACMAL) to better understand alloy behavior at an atomic level.

Read more at Be Brief: Strength, by Kelley Christensen.

6400 SEM status

I repaired the memory battery so now we have all kvs aligned.

I also replaced an aperture and as a result, resolution improved markedly. I’ll be replacing 2 more apertures over the holidays. That will require that I take the SEM offline for a few days. I’ll give you plenty of notice.