Microscopy and XRD Equipment

Equipment availability and reservation information can be found on the MSE iLab equipment page.

Equipment Items

FEI Inspect F50 SEM  

The FEI Inspect 50 scanning electron microscope (SEM) is a high-resolution thermal-field-emission gun instrument.  

Capable of both secondary and backscattered electron imaging (SE, BSE) with resolution limits of 1 nm for SE (ETD) and 2.5 nm for BSE (vCD). 

Low voltage / low dose and beam deceleration capabilities make the instrument suitable for all types of materials, metals, ceramics, polymers and biomaterials. 

Equipped with an Oxford Instruments X-act silicon-drift energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) capable of elemental detection down to Z=5. 

Scancoat Six Sputter Coater 

This Scancoat Six compact sputter coater prepares samples for Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The system is designed to coat SEM samples with a high-quality conductive metal film. The system can coat the whole sample surface, including samples with re-entrant surfaces, and features automated sputtering with a digital process timer for repeatable operation.

A water-cooled copper specimen table provides heat sink capacity to reduce heating of delicate samples. This sputter coater is fitted with a silver target. Silver only, no gold.  

LECO Inverted Microscope GX51  

The Inverted Metallurgical Microscope GX51 can use reflected as well as transmitted light to give bright, dark-field, and polarized light imaging. 

Leica Flexacam C3 camera and Windows 10 computer with LAS X for capturing images 

Maximum resolution 12.0 MP (4000×3000) 

Full internet connectivity to upload images to any cloud repository. 

LECO LX31 Optical Microscope with Leica Flexacam C3 12.0 MP Camera  

The LECO LX31 optical microscope allows for 5x, 10x, 20x, and 50x magnification of reflective objects. 

Leica Flexacam C3 camera and Windows 10 computer with LAS X for capturing images 

Maximum resolution 12.0 MP (4000×3000) 

Full internet connectivity to upload images to any cloud repository.  

Leica DMi8-A Inverted Microscope with DFC7000T Color Camera  

Olympus SZX12 Stereomicroscope with Leica Flexacam C3 12.0 MP Camera  

The Olympus SZX stereomicroscope: 

• zoom ratio of 1:12.8 
• magnification from 0.7X-9X 
• giving a total magnification capability of 2.1X-675X 
• Leica Flexacam C3 camera and Windows 10 computer with LAS X for capturing images 
• Maximum resolution 12.0 MP (4000×3000) 
• Full internet connectivity to upload images to any cloud repository. 

Rigaku XRD  

The Rigaku SmartLab is a high-resolution x-ray diffractometer with a standard copper anode, sealed tube source with tungsten filament. 

The auto-aligning system has a 2D HyPix-3000 Hybrid Pixel Array Detector. 

SmartLab can perform; 

• Bragg-Brentano (BB) 
• parallel beam (PB) 
• Grazing Incidence Diffraction (GID) 
• x-y mapping 
• micro XRD on thin films, powders, and nanomaterials. 

Available sample stages include standard, 100mm x-y translation stage, and Euler cradle.