Center for Surface Anaylsis open house to feature new 300,000-volt microscope

by Marci Hersh

CWRU's Center for Surface Analysis (CSAM) will conduct an open house to introduce faculty, staff and students to a new 300,000-volt transmission electron microscope (TEM). The event is from 3-8:30 p.m. February 13 and coincides with the spring meeting of the Microscopy Society of Northeast Ohio.

Frank Ernst, professor in the department of materials science and engineering, conducts research that involves extensive use of TEM, particularly high-resolution TEM in various fields of materials studies. He was a senior scientist at the Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung in Stuttgart, Germany, where he worked with the Stuttgart Atomic Resolution Microscope, a unique 1250 kV high-voltage, high-resolution instrument.

With his students, Ernst has developed the method of "quantitative" high-resolution TEM, which enables determination of the atomic structure of crystal defects with unprecedented precision and reliability.

"The new high-resolution field emission gun transmission electron microscope is capable of atomic level (<1.4 Å) resolution and microanalysis and microcrystallography at 10 Å spatial resolution," said Arthur H. Heuer, University professor and Kyocera Professor of Ceramics in the department of materials science and engineering, who also serves as CSAM's director. "Its attachments include an electron energy-filtering spectrometer, which is particularly useful for studies involving elemental mapping, quantitative evaluation of electron diffraction patterns and insight on atomic bonding. It not only greatly enhances CSAM's characterization capabilities but provides new opportunities for research for both academic and industrial users."

CSAM's eight analytical instruments constitute a comprehensive array of non-destructive compositional and structural tools for surface and bulk analysis of metals, alloys, ceramics, semiconductors, polymers and composites. The instruments are used by a range of CWRU academic researchers in the departments of materials science and engineering, chemical engineering, electrical engineering and computer science, macromolecular science and engineering, civil and mechanical engineering, physics and chemistry, as well as the CWRU School of Medicine and the School of Dentistry.

The CSAM instruments also assist industrial clients in solving a variety of research, development and failure analysis problems.

CSAM's new TEM microscope was purchased with the help of a $450,000 grant from the Major Research Instrumentation Program at the National Science Foundation (NSF), $225,000 from the Ohio Board of Regents, $267,000 from The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and $225,000 from the Case School of Engineering.

Steven Eppell, assistant professor in the department of biomedical engineering, also received $385,000 from the NSF's Major Research Instrumentation Program and $265,000 from the Ohio Board of Regents to construct a near-field scanning optical microscope capable of phase, fluorescence, polarization and second harmonic imaging with molecular scale resolution.

The CSAM open house schedule is:

• 3-4:45 p.m., CSAM tour, room 110, Glennan Building, to include a wine and cheese reception sponsored by FEI Company, which develops and manufacturers Scanning Electron Microscopes and transmission electron microscope systems, and Gatan Inc., manufacturer of the new instrument and some of its accessories.
• 4:45-6 p.m., "Assessing Interface Structures and Interfacial Atomic Bonds by Quantitative High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy," technical presentation by Ernst, 411 White Metallurgy Building.
• 6:15-7:15 p.m., dinner, Faculty Dining Room in Tomlinson Hall, registration required by February 11, e-mail jarc@cwru.edu.
• 7:30-8:30 p.m., "Macromolecular Imaging via High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy," technical presentation by Wah Chiu, the Alvin Romansky professor of biochemistry and molecular physiology and biophysics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and Director of the National Center for Macromolecular Imaging (NCMI), 411 White Metallurgy Building.

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