The Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems has added Hitachi's HF5000 field emission transmission electron microscope to its range of microstructure diagnostics.
The new microscope was presented during a workshop in Halle (Saale) where international experts were in attendance. Attendees were also presented with novel microscopy technologies and a demonstration of possible applications of the HF5000.
The purpose of the workshop was to detail the research possibilities of Hitachi’s HF5000 for both nano and surface analysis. By means of an electron beam obtained from a cold field emission source and an electron-optical probe corrector, subangstrom beam diameters can be generated, providing researchers with even more precise insights into the nanostructure of things such as glasses, glass-ceramics and optical layers. This means that the device is able to more clearly identify microstructural defects, map element distributions more easily and as a result accelerate the work on improving material properties.
The microscope in Halle is primarily used by Optical Materials and Technologies. Thomas Höche, head of this business unit spoke during his presentation about the value the microscope adds for both the institute and its customers: "I'm proud that our team is the first in Europe to work with the Hitachi HF5000.
"We benefit from the outstanding quality of the element distribution mappings in particular as an applied research institution and thus the companies that we support in the improvement of their products. For example, we can identify microstructural vulnerabilities in materials used in the optical industry or the paint industry more quickly and offer solutions for avoiding them.
"Our business unit will not only characterise materials down to the atomic level, but also develop them."
After the talk, attendees were then given the opportunity to take a tour of the microscope and the lab built specifically for the equipment.
The significant increase in performance when acquiring STEM images is the key feature of the high-resolution analytical 200-keV scanning transmission electron microscope. The miscroscope is able to achieve this through combining the TEM and the STEM technology.
The HF5000 can also be used for investigations with only 60 kV acceleration voltage due to the beam generation by means of cold field emission and the implemented probe corrector. Additionally, there are detectors for the detection of excited X-ray radiation, which measure a spatial angle of 2.2 steradians, which is three times the best TEM/STEM at Fraunhofer so far and contributes to the faster acquisition of elemental distribution images.
Yasukuni Koga, Hitachi High-Technologies commented at the end of the workshop: "We are very pleased to have found a premium partner in Europe with the Fraunhofer IMWS, who fully utilises the application possibilities of the HF5000. The workshop has confirmed that we can shape the future and expand technological boundaries through this great collaboration."