July_AMP_Digital

ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES •

JULY 2014

Newmicroscope sees what others miss

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, Md.,

built the first low-energy focused ion beam (FIB) microscope that uses a lithium ion source. The

team’s new approach opens up the possibility of creat-

ing a whole category of FIBs using any one of up to 20

different elements, greatly increasing the options for

imaging, sculpting, or characterizing materials.

Although the new microscope’s resolution is not as

good as a scanning electron microscope (SEM) or he-

lium ion microscope, it can image nonconductive ma-

terials and can more clearly visualize the chemical

composition on the surface of a sample than the higher-

energy SEMs and FIBs. Further, by analyzing the energy

with which the ions scatter, researchers have shown that

the microscope should be able to not only see that adja-

cent materials are chemically different, but also identify

the elements that make them up.

nist.gov.

The NIST focused lithium ion beammicroscope traps and cools

a gas of lithium atoms to a fewmillionths of a degree above

absolute zero (MOT section). Another laser ionizes the atoms

and then electric fields accelerate them, straightening out their

flight and focusing them on a target. Courtesy of NIST.

Instron,

Norwood, Mass., part-

nered with Professor El Haj,

director of the Institute of Sci-

ence and Technology in Medi-

cine at Keele University, UK, to

study regenerative medicine.

As this field becomes more es-

tablished, it is critical to inves-

tigate and understand the

relationship between cells and

their mechanical environment.

El Haj is working with an inter-

disciplinary group to pursue

translational research for re-

generative medicine, and Instron

will provide the instrumentation

needed to study the in vivo envi-

ronment on the benchtop.