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Nanotechnology is an emerging field considered likely to have a major impact on medicine, agriculture and the environment and therefore generate substantial economic benefits in the next decade. Essential requirements are clean rooms for assembly of nanostructures and electron microscopes for imaging the molecular structures, microanalysis of complex materials and nanofabrication of fluidics systems.
The Institute's $10m Electron Microscopy Unit and clean room is a key facility designed for physical sciences, life sciences and engineering applications. The unit is equipped with five state-of-the-art electron microscopes, available to academic and industry users on a fee for use basis.
The electron microscopes include:
 FEI Quanta Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM)
Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope fitted with a Peltier cold stage operating from -25 to + 40C. Designed for high resolution imaging of the surface morphology of biological and materials science preparations. Because of varialble pressure some samples can be imaged live or without any chemical treatment.
Philips XL-30 Scanning Electron Microscope
SEM equipped with an X-ray microanalysis system for elemental analysis.
 FEI Nova dual beam, focussed ion beam system
Combined SEM and gallium ion beam instrument. Equipped with EDAX, Pt-deposition system and micromanipulator. Suitable for device cross-sectioning, TEM sample preparation, nanofabrication and 3D reconstruction using the Slice and View system.
 FEI Tecnai F30 Transmission electron microscope
Equipped with an anti-contaminator and cold stage which allows imaging of quick frozen samples as well as tomography in either room temperature or cryo conditions. The microscope is equipped with two +/- 70 degrees holder for room temperature and cryo samples. The main application of this microscope is in the structural investigation of biological macromolecules, cells and tissue in 3D. It can also be used for material science when 3D data or cryogenic conditions are necessary.
 FEI Tecnai F20 Transmission electron microscope
High-resolution TEM for materials science applications with HAADF (STEM) detector and EDAX system.
Accessing the Electron Microscopes
To access the electron microscopes, contact the EM Unit staff:
Users will only be granted access to the facility following training with a member of the EM facility.
Staff bios
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