TEM Coming

The Department of Physics and Astronomy will soon receive a transmission electron microscope (TEM), a gift from Syracuse University. The TEM will be used by Drs. Izaguirre and Weiss for their research in photonics, biomolecular electronics, nanotechnology and thin film materials. Students and faculty from other departments will be encouraged to use it as well. The TEM will be an excellent complement to the Department’s existing characterization equipment and to the scanning electron microscope in the new Keck Lab.

The TEM works by sending a beam of high energy (80-120 keV) electrons through a sample which can then be analyzed in either real space or reciprocal space (diffraction). It is capable of magnifications up to one million times with a resolution of 4.3 angstroms. This provides the user the capability to observe objects that are on the scale of a single atom.