FEI bets heavily on nanogune's Advanced Electron-Microscopy Laboratory

01/07/2010

An Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM) and a Dual-Beam Focused Ion Beam (FIB) nanofabrication tool have been installed at nanoGUNE’s Advanced Electron Microscopy Laboratory. The purchase of these already-functional tools and a still-to-come spherical-aberration corrected high-resolution Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) is part of an ambitious cooperation agreement signed between nanoGUNE and FEI, leading supplier of high-end electron microscopes, that also includes five collaborative research projects together with demonstration and educational activities.

The Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM) QuantaTM 250 FEG and the Helios NanoLabTM DualBeam TM, which combines an advanced SEM and a FIB column for nanofabrication, represent tools that are already installed and running at the nanoGUNE’s Advanced Electron-Microscopy Laboratory. Studies of realtime redox chemistry involving nano-objects and the imaging of fluids under microfluidic conditions are some of the topics where the ESEM will play a key role, while the FIB tool will explore new processes for the fabrication of functional nanostructures and nanodevices, complementary to other techniques such as Photolithography and Electron-Beam Lithography also available at nanoGUNE. The advanced electron-microscopy laboratory will be completed in November with the instalation of the (Scanning) Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM/STEM) TitanTM G2 60-300 with an imaging Cs-corrector that will place nanoGUNE at the leading edge of electron-microscopy facilities.

This purchase is part of a three-year agreement signed by FEI and nanoGUNE that establishes nanoGUNE as an active FEI reference and demonstration center for the installation of new FEI instruments. As a result of this agreement, nanoGUNE will get access to the newest technologies in the fields of electron microscopy and focused-ion-beam nanofabrication, playing an active role in the transfer of these new technologies to other research centers and/or industry.

The agreement also includes the development of five research projects that will be carried out by teams involving researchers from both FEI and nanoGUNE. FEI and nanoGUNE researchers will join their complementary expertise with the objective of exploring new methods and applications of electron-microscopy and focused-ion-beam techniques. The contents of the projects are in close relation with current research interests of the nanoGUNE research groups, thereby establishing a cooperative framework for the benefit of both parties.