Department of Materials

Facilities

Loughborough Materials Characterisation Centre (LMCC)

TEM

FEI Tecnai F20 TEM

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a microscopy technique in which a beam of electrons is transmitted through an ultra-thin specimen, interacting with the specimen as it passes through.

An image is formed by detecting the scattered electrons exiting from the specimen. TEM provides atomic resolution imaging providing the capability to reveal atom columns and microstructures of materials in sub-nanoscale. The system is also equiped with an Oxford Instruments Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) detector to provide information on the chemical composition of specific features. A combination of imaging, selected area diffraction analysis and chemical analysis using EDS allows detailed characterisation to be carried.

The FEI Tecnai™ F20 is a versatile Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) that can operate in conventional parallel illumination mode or as a Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope (STEM). In STEM mode the system is able to provide high spatial resolution chemical information from either the revolutionary new large area (80mm^2) windowless Silicon Drift Detector (SDD) or the complementary spectrum mapping using the Gatan ENFINA Electron Energy Loss Spectrometer.

Typical applications:

  • Materials sciences
  • Nanotechnology
  • Semiconductor
  • Life sciences

Specification:

  • Accelerating Voltage: 200 kV
  • Electron Source: Schottky Field Emission Gun
  • Objective Lens: FEI Supertwin (S-TWIN)
  • Cs = 1.2 mm
  • Point resolution = 0.24 nm
  • Line resolution = 0.15nm
  • Allowable goniometer tilt about 40° / 30° (double tilt)
  • Compustage control of the specimen position and tilt
  • 3-fold stigmators
  • Gatan Multiscan CCD Camera
  • STEM capability with a spatial resolution 0.2nm (theoretical)
  • Gatan Bright and Dark field STEM detectors
  • Fischione HAADF STEM detector
  • Gatan Enfina Electron Energy Loss Spectrometer
  • STEM Spectrum imaging
  • Oxford Instruments X-Max 80mm^2 windowless energy-dispersive spectrometer (EDS)