Initial Publication Date: April 20, 2021

JEOL-6100 Conventional SEM with NORAN EDS detector at the Imaging and Chemical Analysis Laboratory (ICAL)

Montana State University-Bozeman ICAL Website

Contact Information

Sara Zacher (Lab Manager) or Recep Avci (Lab Director)

406 994 4199

ical@sympa.montana.edu

Bozeman, MT


Instrument Type

JEOL-6100 Conventional SEM with NORAN EDS detector

SEM2020lr-400x300.jpg
The JEOL 6100 Scanning Electron Microsope at ICAL, Montana State University[creative commons]
Provenance: Dave Mogk, Montana State University-Bozeman
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.
  • Back-Scattered Electron Detector (BSE), for phase discrimination determined by mean atomic number
  • NORAN EDS energy dispersive spectrometer; this detector will be replaced with an Oxford AZTEC EDS system summer 2021
  • Elemental X-ray mapping using the Rontec FlashMap Detector
  • Cathodoluminescence Detector--this new detector will be installed summer 2021
  • LaB6 electron gun, that produces a stable, bright electron beam.
Sample Preparation Facilities
  • Sample Coating (C, Au, Ir, others)
  • Critical point dryer

Model: JEOL-6100 Scanning Electron Microscope

Application:

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)is the workhorse of micro-imaging methods with applications across all the STEM disciplines. SEM is particularly useful for characterization of size and shape of materials on a micron to mm scale, and for documenting textural and structural features such as overgrowths and intergrowths. Biological samples may be imaged, but commonly need to be prepared using a critical point dryer to avoid dessication of the sample in the vacuum of the sample chamber.
6bc15627-036e-4f6f-81ed-7d6cce9cf6c9.jpg
SEM image of corroded filament[creative commons]
Provenance: Dave Mogk, Montana State University-Bozeman
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.
SEM Image of a pollen grain
SEM image of pollen grain[creative commons]
Provenance: Dave Mogk, Montana State University-Bozeman
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

Typical Use:

Typical uses include:
  • Imaging of morphological features of materials, using both secondary electron and back scattered electron imaging
  • Elemental analysis of materials, using Energy Dispersive Spectrometry to acquire secondary X-ray spectra
  • Elemental mapping using the EDS system to show distribution of elements on a micron scale.

Conditions for Use:

As a regional user facility, ICAL encourages users to acquire training through our Short Courses so that the design and implementation of experiments is done to meet specific user-defined research objectives. Collaboration with ICAL staff is encouraged. Submitted samples can also be analyzed on a contract basis (i.e. lab personnel will do the work). ICAL is also available to do preliminary "proof-of-concept", exploratory experiments, including optimazation of instruments to address the defined tasks, data acquistion, and data interpretation to help support future funding and collaboration opportunities.

User Fees:

Contact the lab manager for details about user fees. In general, user fees are applied only to actual beam time for instrument use and staff time. Additional nominal charges are applied for using the sample coaters.

Instrument Priorities:

Scheduling is supervised by the lab manager. In general, class demonstrations/projects are scheduled to accommodate academic schedules. External clients (other universities, government agencies, corporate) are scheduled for rapid turn-around of results. All certified users (who take our ~10 hour short courses) are authorized to sign up for instrument use 24/7 at our reservation site. We prefer certified users to design and implement their own experiments, but lab staff are available to assist independent users as needed in experiment design, instrument operation and interpretation of results.

Remote Use:

Remote operation is not directly possible for any of the ICAL instruments. But in response to the COVID lockdowns, we have implemented use of real-time video delivery to allow external users to observe analysis of their samples and to provide for direct interaction and decision-making as the experiments proceed.

Sample Preparation:

Standard SEM mounts are used. Polished thin sections of geological materials are optimal for BSE and CL imaging, and EDS spot analyses and elemental X-ray mapping. Irregular samples on the cm-scale or smaller can be accommodated in the large sample chamber. Biological samples can be prepared using our critical point dryer.

Sample Preparation Facilities

  • Sample coating (Carbon coater and Metal sputter coater, Ir, Au, Au/Pd)
  • Critical Point Dryer

Standard Collections/Lab Blanks:

A collection of ~50 standards (from NIST, USGS) of rock-forming minerals is available for standards-based quantitative analysis.

Software:

Rontec digital capture software is used for imaging. NORAN EDS software is used for elemental analysis. Image processing is often done using programs such as imageJ.

Educational Use:

  • Class demonstrations are available for undergraduates
  • Class demonstrations are available for K-12
  • Undergraduate student research projects are invited
  • Graduate student research projects are invited
  • Tutorials and other educational materials related to the lab are available
  • ICAL routinely offers class demonstrations and supports course projects across the STEM disciplines. We encourage interested users to take our 10 hour short courses in the operation of each instrument to become independent users of this facility as part of our professional training program.


Support provided by:

The ICAL facility is partly funded by the NSF National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure Program, award #2025391, Montana Nanotechnology Facility (MONT)