The facility houses four major instruments along with an array of supporting preparation and storage equipment. The four current major instruments include the new SXFive-TACTIS, installed in December 2018 (the first touchscreen controlled EPMA), the one-of-a-kind Cameca Ultrachron electron microprobe, the SX100 electron microprobe, and a Carl Zeiss EVO50 variable pressure scanning electron microscope.
Cameca SXFive-TACTIS
Specifications
Fully automated quantitative and qualitative analysis capabilities. Analysis and automation are done via Cameca Peaksight PC software. This is the first touchscreen controlled EPMA.
Bruker XFlaxh SDD EDS detector with integrated software control system.
5 wavelength dispersive spectrometers:
1: Flow proportional (low pressure P-10) LTAP, LPET
2: Flow proportional (high pressure P-10) LLIF, LPET
3: Flow proportional (high pressure P-10) LPET, LLIF
4: Flow proportional (low pressure P-10) TAP, PC1, PC2, PC3
5: Flow proportional (high pressure P-10) LPET, LLIF
Vacuum system
Off axis ion pump
Turbo-molecular high vacuum pump
Edwards XDS35i mechanical pump
Imaging
SE, BSE, plus BSE HQ (Deben)
Stage
Autofocus with 0.1 micron motion
50 permanently mounted standards
2 standard thin sections, or 4 -1″ round plugs or sections
Cameca SX-Ultrachron
This instrument was developed through an NSF sponsored collaboration between Cameca and UMass Geosciences in order to explore electron microprobe trace element analysis and applications in geochronology.
Specifications
Cameca PeakSight automation software and Probe Software, Inc. Probe for EPMA quantitative analysis package, Bruker AXS energy dispersive drift detector with integrated software control system (Bruker Esprit software)
5 wavelength dispersive spectrometers
1: Flow proportional (low pressure P-10) LPET (primary), TAP
2: Flow proportional (high pressure P-10) LPET (primary), LLIF (with variable slit)
3: Flow proportional (high pressure P-10) VLPET with VL detector
4: Flow proportional (high pressure P-10) VLPET with VL detector
5: Flow proportional (high pressure P-10) LLIF, PET
Vacuum system
Ion pump at gun and dry system: Turbomolecular pump on column, stage with Dry Scroll pumps for backing and roughing.
Anticontamination: O2 gas jet, LN2 cold plate
Retractable BSE shield
Electron optics
Optimized CeB 6 source
Geochron firmware for resolution optimization
Ultra-high current regulation
Stage
Autofocus with 0.1 micron motion
50 permanently mounted standards
2 standard thin sections, or 4 1″ round plugs or sections
Cameca SX-100
Specifications
Cameca PeakSight automation software, Bruker AXS energy dispersive drift detector with integrated software control system (Bruker Esprit software)
5 wavelength dispersive spectrometers
1: Flow proportional (low pressure P-10) LTAP, PET
2: Flow proportional (high pressure P-10) LIF, PET
3: Flow proportional (high pressure P-10) LIF, PET
4: Flow proportional (low pressure P-10) LTAP, PC1
5: Flow proportional (high pressure P-10) LIF, PET
Vacuum system
Gun ion pump, Turbomolecular pump on column
Electron optics
Optimized CeB 6 source
Geochron firmware for resolution optimization
Ultra-high current regulation
Stage
Autofocus with 0.1 micron motion
103 permanently mounted standards
2 standard thin sections, or 4 1″ round plugs or sections
Carl Zeiss EVO50
Specifications:
Electron optical system
Tungsten thermionic source, Optibeam column control
Resolution: 3.0 nm (at 30kV in SE mode)
Magnification: 5x to 100,000,000x
Voltage range: 0.2kV to 30kV
5-axis motorized stage
Variable pressure (5-750Pa)
Detectors
High vacuum and variable pressure SE detectors
Solid state, 4-quadrant backscatter electron detector
Gatan MiniCL for panchromatic cathodoluminescence
Operation via Carl Zeiss SmartSEM GUI (WinXP)
EDS
Bruker-AXS EDS system with XFlash 4010 SDD, Esprit-Quantax software (PC)
Imaging
Resolution up to 3072×2304
integration and averaging for noise reduction