TEM Facility: About
An advanced cryo-transmission electron microscope (TEM) facility is newly launched at the Liquid Crystal Institute (LCI) of Kent State University, and has started to serve the research and industry community in the surrounding area and beyond since January 2011. The cryo-TEM facility is a part of the Research Cluster on Surfaces in Advanced Materials (RC-SAM), supported by the Ohio Research Scholars Program and led by the LCI. RC-SAM partners are Case Western Reserve University, Youngstown State University, Cleveland Botanical Garden, Alpha Micron, Inc., CoAdna Photonics, Inc., Kent Displays, Inc., Kent Optronics, Inc., and LXD, Inc.
Compared to an optical microscope employing visible light of hundreds nanometers in wavelength, a TEM uses monochromic fast electrons with much shorter wavelength (0.00251 nm for 200 keV electrons) and provides atomic imaging resolution and much more. This easy-to-use 200 kV microscope (Tecnai G2 F20), manufactured by FEI, features the most advanced digitally controlled operating system, a Schottky field emission gun, and an integrated scanning TEM (STEM) system, providing superb performance of a 0.24 nm point-to-point resolution and a 0.15 nm information limit in TEM mode and a 0.2 nm spot size in STEM mode. Several state-of-the-art attachments and accessories also make this TEM lab standout in the Ohio area. The integrated low-dose exposure mode, anti-contaminator, and 4k*4k UltraScan CCD camera, and the accompanied FEI Vitrobot and Cryo holder make it ideal for the studies of biological and other soft matter materials, such as lyotropic liquid crystals. The integrated Gatan Tridiem imaging filter and EDAX x-ray detector enable the most up-to-date analysis techniques on the inelastically scattered electrons, including electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), energy filtered TEM (EFTEM), and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The new TEM facility, combining high performance, versatility and flexibility, is expected to become a powerful multi-purpose, multi-user platform for cross-disciplinary (materials science/biology/nanotechnology) research and service.
The new cryo-TEM facility is routinely operated by Dr. Min Gao, an established electron microscopist with 18 years of experience in applying and developing advanced electron microscopy techniques. Min can be reached at mgao@kent.edu, 330-672-7999 (office), and 330-672-1406 (lab). Our goal is to establish a highly efficient and yet friendly environment and provide world-class atomic/nano-scale characterization capabilities for both academic and industry users.