EDS computer (MAC) could not start anymore on Dec 10. I am contacting IT person and the vendor…
XL-30 SEM CCD camera down on 12/06/2010 and fixed on 12/07/2010
XL-30 SEM CCD camera is down this afternoon. FEI service has been informed. Waiting for response…
AFM is down on 12/02/2010 and up on 1/20/2011
AFM scanner had a problem and was shipped to Agilent for repair.
SBT dimpler had problem on 11/16/2010 and was fixed on 11/23/2010
Sample stage does not rotate smoothly because the slurry dripped into the platen shaft.Waiting for parts
SCSMM November Meeting features Prof. Bill Schopf, UCLA
The Earliest History of Life: Solution to Darwin’s Dilemma
Director of the Center for the Study of Evolution and the Origin of Life at UCLA, J. William Schopf received his undergraduate training in geology at Oberlin College, Ohio, and his Ph.D., in biology, from Harvard University. A member of the UCLA faculty since 1968, he has received all of his university’s campus-wide faculty awards: for teaching, research, and academic excellence. A leader in studies of the Precambrian (earliest 85%) history of life, he was the first to discover such ancient microorganisms in Australia, South Africa, the USSR, India, and China; published the first taxonomic monograph on Precambrian microbial communities; and is discoverer of the oldest fossils known. His pioneering use of Raman imagery and confocal scanning laser microscopy to analyze the chemistry and cell structure of rock-embedded fossil microbes have revolutionized his field. Schopf’s studies have been pivotal in extending the documented record of life to 3,500 million years ago, seven times earlier than was previously known.
Note: this talk was the plenary talk at this year’s Microscopy and Microanalysis Meeting in Portland. It was an excellent talk and very interesting.
Meeting to be held on November 9 at 5pm in the CNSI building at UCLA. Dinner is included. $5 for students and $10 for everyone else. (subject to change!)
More details to follow.
SCSMM: Southern California Society for Microscopy and Microanalysis
SEM Short Course Scheduled on Sept 22
SEM short course: How to Get Best Result from FEI/Philips XL-30 FESEM
Date: 9/22/2010 (Wed)
9:30-12:00: SEM lecture, Room 3008 Calit2 Building
1:00pm-5:00pm: SEM demo and problem solving, Room 140, engineering Tower
Contact: jzheng@uci.edu (Dr. Jian-Guo Zheng)
The SEM in MC2 is a field emission gun machine (FEI/Philips XL-30) with a resolution of 2nm. This SEM is equipped with E-T SE detector, solid state BSE detector and an EDS system, enabling users to obtain information about sample surface morphology and (qualitative and quantitative) chemical composition. To help users to take advantage of its full capabilities, a SEM short course “How to Get Best Result from FEI/Philips XL-30 FESEM” is scheduled on Sept 22, 2010. All current XL-30 SEM users and potential users are welcome to attend the one-day short course. The short course consists of 2.5hrs lecture (SEM principles and operations) in the morning and 2-4hrs (problem solving) demo in the afternoon. If you are interested in the short course, please email Dr. Zheng at jzheng@uci.edu in advance. If users have specific problems with their samples, they are welcome to inform Dr. Zheng in advance. A few users’ samples will be selected for the demo section.
XL-30 V3 problem solved
Recently, XL-30 SEM had a V3 problem. This problem has been solved since service engineer replaced an old valve with a new one. I also fixed a chiller problem and changed the filters. The SEM performance is good.
Zeiss Center of Excellence to end September 30
We have been informed by Zeiss that the UltraPlus will not be returning to campus and that the EVO LS15 will be removed by Zeiss on October 1. Please plan your use of the EVO accordingly. Remember, the EVO still has great EDS capabilities with the Thermo SDD-based EDS system.
We will announce the arrival of the new replacement instrument as soon as we have more information.
EVO configured for EBSD
For one week, the EVO has been configured for EBSD and spectral imaging is disabled. We will return to EVO / EDS configuration next Thursday. If you have any questions, call John Porter
No new EVO training until August
No new training sessions can be offered before August 10 due to staffing cuts. All requests for new training will need to be scheduled after that date.