CAMCOR microscopes give researchers, industry close-up views

A scanning electron microscope (SEM), installed in Cascade Hall during summer 2006, is giving researchers an ultra-high-resolution view of microscopic surfaces. Among the viewing possibilities are anthropological artifacts and living cells that do not need to be disturbed by coatings or have moisture removed.

The tool is a Quanta 200 FEG environmental microscope, which also can operate in traditional high vacuum and variable pressure modes. Its environmental mode offers the flexibility of looking at objects in a near natural state and obtaining new levels of observation, says John Donovan, director of the electron microprobe and electron microscopy facilities within the Center for Advanced Materials Characterization in ORegon (CAMCOR), a shared instrument facility.

Ilya N. Bindeman of the UO Department of Geological Sciences prepares a sample for analysis on the Qunta 200 FEG. (photo by Jack Liu)

The machine was the third SEM to be installed at CAMCOR in the last four years. It was purchased from the FEI Co. of Hillsboro, Ore., with matching funds from the National Science Foundation and M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust of Vancouver, Wash., to University of Oregon geologist Katharine Cashman and colleagues. Through a cooperative arrangement, the university received some $800,000 in equipment and accessories will work with FEI to review system performance and consider future improvements.

In traditional scanning electron microscopes, samples go under a high vacuum and must be water free. They normally are coated with a thin conductive layer to assist in the removal of electrostatic charging, a process that alters surface characteristics. These specimen-preparation conditions rule out the use of most living biological specimens and many advanced material surface studies. An environmental SEM allows for an investigation of wet samples in almost normal atmospheric humidity and of unaltered semiconductor devices without coating.

“You can image a surface at high resolution without damaging it, and then perform X-ray work to identify elements that are in the near-surface region,” Donovan said.

University researchers and industry scientists have access to CAMCOR’s equipment a for-service basis. CAMCOR is a full-service, comprehensive materials characterization center available to research institutions and private industry.

This article first appeared in the Fall 2006 issue of Inquiry. It has been re-edited and reduced in length for presentation here.