CEMMA INSTRUMENTS
The instruments are used for both research and teaching. Hourly instrument use charges are applied for each instrument according to whether or not the instruments require the use of an operator. Special rates apply for use of a given instrument for more than 10 hours/month and for use of the instruments in collaborative research involving USC faculty and off-campus research projects. The following instruments are included in the Center for Electron Microscopy and Microanalysis and are located in the CEMMA building.
This standard JEOL transmission electron microscope is primarily used for biological specimens. It has a side entry goniometer stage and can be used in bright field or dark field microscopy as well as phase contrast and diffraction contrast microscopy. It has a point-to-point resolution of 0.45 nm and a lattice resolution of 0.2 nm.
This is an Analytical Electron Microscope (AEM) with capability of operation in the transmission imaging mode with a lattice resolution of 0.2 nm and a point-to-point resolution of 0.34 nm. The Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry (EDS) is capable of detecting all elements with atomic number greater than 2. Electron diffraction is possible both in the Selected Area Diffraction mode (SAD) and the convergent beam electron diffraction mode (CBED). The latter mode provides crystallographic information from regions of the order of 2 nm in size.
This transmission electron microscope is dedicated for use as a high resolution transmission electron microscope. The point-to-point resolution at 200kV is 1.84 angstroms. The microscope is equiped with a Gatan CCD camera. The microscope allow materials to be studied at the atomic level.
In XPS, x-rays bombard a sample creating ionized atoms and ejecting free electrons. The energies of these free electrons are related to their binding energies in the original atom. This is a versatile tool capable of providing both quantitative elemental and chemical states information on virtually any vacuum compatible surface. Sputter depth profiling is also available and detects all elements except H and He.