Low kV STEM: Hitachi SU9000EA

The Hitachi SU9000 low kV scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM), operates at voltages between 500V and 30kV, and is able to image in secondary electron (SE), backscatter electron (BSE), bright field (BF), and high angle dark field (HAADF) imaging modes simultaneously. This allows for generating both surface and interior structure information at the same time, whilst being able to image upto 3M times magnification. Other highlights include a windowless EDS system (Ultim Extreme, Oxford), Diffraction, and Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy.  The SU9000 also has a Blaze (Hitachi) in situ heating system for conducting heating experiments within the microscope up to 1100 degrees Celsius.

$1 million NSF grant funds new electron microscope

The acquisition of this instrument was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under award number 1919942 via the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program.

Pricing

Training: 300 dollars per person (comes with two hours of instrument usage)

Hourly rate for academic/non-profit trained users: 70 dollars per hour

Hourly rate for staff imaging of submitted samples from academic/non-profit users: 150 dollars per hour

Hourly rate for staff imaging of submitted samples from for profit users: 450 dollars per hour

In Situ heating experiments: 70 dollars per hour plus cost of e-chip

Publications

Formo, E. V.; Howe, J.Y.; Sunaoshi, T.; Muto, A.; Kilcrease, J.; Salguero, T. “Application of Low kV EELS to Problematic Samples” Microscopy and Microanalysis, 2019, 25 (S2), 466-467.

Formo, E. V.; Salguero, T.; Howe, J. Y.; Sunaoshi, T.; Muto, A. “Insights Into the Structure of the Ligand Capping Layer of Inorganic Nanostructures via Multi kV Electron Microscopy Analysis” Microscopy and Microanalysis, 2018, 24 (S1), 676-677.

Sunaoshi, T.; Okada, S.; Kaji, K.; Voelkl, E.; Ramachandran, R.; Salguero, T. “Expanding the Depth of Field for Imaging with Low keV Electrons: High Resolution Surface Observations of Nanostructured LaB6 Using Low keV Secondary and Backscattered Electrons” Microscopy and Microanalysis, 2017, 22 (S1), 1830-1831.