Scientific MUE: acquisition of set dual beam microscope for in-situ sample preparation and transmission electron microscope with state-of-the-art hardware and quad EDS detector

• Grant number: 22/11290-9
• Support Opportunities: Research Infrastructure Program - Scientific
• Start date: August 01, 2023
• End date: July 31, 2030
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Materials and Metallurgical Engineering - Physical Metallurgy
• Principal Investigator: Piter Gargarella
• Grantee: Piter Gargarella
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Exatas e de Tecnologia (CCET). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Claudemiro Bolfarini ; Claudio Shyinti Kiminami ; Conrado Ramos Moreira Afonso ; Edgar Dutra Zanotto ; Francisco Gil Coury ; Guilherme Zepon ; Marisa Narciso Fernandes ; Reginaldo Teixeira Coelho ; Walter José Botta Filho

Abstract

This project proposes the acquisition of a Dual Beam Microscope and a Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) to be incorporated into the infrastructure of the Structural Characterization Laboratory, LCE, of the Materials Engineering Department of UFSCar, complementing and modernizing its infrastructure for micro, nano and sub-nano structural analysis of all types of materials. LCE is a multidisciplinary and multi-user laboratory open to users from companies and research institutions throughout the country. It was created in 1976 and currently has more than 750 users trained to operate the available equipment and around 4000 registered users. The TEM being requested has state-of-the-art configuration and hardware and allows the acquisition of images with better resolution and higher quality than the other TEM available on the LCE (which are almost 15 years in use). It will also have a quad detector of EDS SDD (Silicon Drift Detector), which allows rapid chemical composition mappings (minutes). A Dual Beam microscope is being requested together for in-situ sample preparation for MET by the Focused Ion Beam (FIB) technique. Although these two devices can work separately, for obtaining high-quality sub-nanometric images and high-resolution compositional mapping in the new TEM, using the Dual Beam microscope for sample preparation is critical. In addition, several materials that are frequently analyzed by TEM can only be effectively prepared using the Dual Beam technique, so we consider that in practical terms, without this equipment, the laboratory's service capacity will be limited, not being able to have an optimal quality of sample preparation to achieve maximum resolution in the new microscope. The incorporation of these two modern multi-user equipment into LCE will add another important step in the history of this Centralized Multiuser Facility, which is unique in Brazil in several aspects related to agility, flexibility and quality of electron microscopy and probe scanning, and microanalysis services, available to researchers and undergraduate and graduate students who require micro-, nano- and sub-nano-structural characterization of different types of materials. (AU)