Facilities

Electron Microscope Facilities

MCEM supports four transmission electron microscopes, three scanning electron microscopes and a dual beam focussed ion beam (FIB) microscope, as well as a broad range of instrumentation for sample preparation and data analysis.

These microscopes are housed in an award-winning building designed to provide exceptional mechanical, thermal and electro-magnetic stability to optimise instrument performance. This is one of the most stable such buildings worldwide.

Transmission electron microscopes

Scanning electron microscopes/Dual beam focused ion beam (FIB) microscope

Specimen preparation equipment

  • Allied Techprep polisher
  • Atom probe tip polisher (in-house)
  • Branson Sonifier 450
  • Buehler EcoMet 3000 grinder-polisher
  • Buehler Handimet 2 roll grinder, two units
  • Buehler IsoMet low speed saw
  • Cressington 208 HR sputter coater
  • Cressington 208 evaporative carbon coater
  • Gatan 601 ultrasonic disc cutter
  • Gatan 656 dimple grinder, two units
  • Gatan 682 Precision Etching and Coating System (PECS) and Perpendicular Slope Cutting Tool
  • Gatan 691 Precision Ion Polishing System (PIPS), two systems
  • Gatan 695 Precision Ion Polishing System II
  • Gatan 950 Solarus Advanced Plasma System
  • LatticeGear Flipscibe cleaving tool
  • Leica EM UMC7 cryo-ultramicrotome
  • Leica M165C stereo optical microscope with digital camera
  • LKB KnifeMaker type 7801A
  • Nikon Eclipse Ni optical microscope
  • Olympus BX-51 stereo optical microscope with digital camera
  • Olympus SZX-16 stereo optical microscope with digital camera
  • Reichert Ultracut S and FCS cryo-ultramicrotome
  • Struers Accutom 50 precision saw
  • Struers Citovac vacuum impregnation unit
  • Struers Lavamin specimen cleaning unit
  • Struers Lectropol 5 electrolytic polisher
  • Struers Tegramin-30 automated polisher
  • Struers Tenupol 2, 3, 5 twin jet electrolytic polishers
  • Technoorg-Linda Ltd Co. Gentle Mill 2
  • XEI Evactron Softclean Zephyr Plasma Cleaner

Software

SoftwareComputer platform
Amira V5, several copies PC
Bruker Esprit EDS X-ray analysis software V1.9 and V2.1 (on microscopes and multiple offline copies) PC
CrystalMaker V10, CrystalDiffract V6, SingleCrystal V3 (multiple copies) PC, Apple
EDAX Genesis EDS X-ray analysis/TSL OIM EBSD Suite (on microscope and multiple offline copies) PC
EDAX TEAM EDS X-ray analysis and EBSD software (on microscope and offline copy) PC
FEI TEM Imaging & Analysis software (TIA) PC
Gatan Digital Micrograph V1, V2 and V3 (on microscopes and multiple offline copies) PC, Apple
HKL Channel 5 EBSD Suite (on microscope and multiple offline copies)PC
HREM Software: GPA; SmartAlign; MSA; FFT-Multislice Simulation Suite; Template matching ModulePC
Image and diffraction pattern simulation programs based on Multislice and Bloch wave methods (in-house)* PC , Linux
Image J PC
JEMS V4.6, multiple copies PC
Monte Carlo simulation of electron trajectories and X-ray production (Casino, Win-Xray and in-house) PC
Oxford AZtec EDS X-ray analysis software & EBSD software V3.3 (on microscope and multiple offline copies) PC
PDF4 2018 ICDD Crystal DatabasePC

* In-house software for elastic and inelastic electron scattering calculations for the interpretation of CBED, STEM, Phase Contrast images, EELS and EDX based on Multislice and Bloch Wave algorithms.