SEM auxillaries

Cressington 208HR sputter coater

The Cressington 208HR (High resolution) together wit the MTM-20 thickness controller have been specially developed in order to make ultrathin, grain-free and uniform metal coating for FEM applications. It is possible to obtain reproducible coatings with a resolution up to 0.1nm in the range of 0.5 - 3nm. Thanks to the rotating, planar or tilted holders (multi-sample holders) an even coating can be sputtered on samples with a high profile. Besides the stand gold-palladium there are possibilities to use other materials for coating:

• Pt/Pd: General purposes for non-conductive samples
• Cr: Excellent for semi-conductor materials
• Ir: Excellent, virtually grain-free coating material
• Other elements optional: Ag, Al, Au, Au/Pd, Cr, Cu Fe, Ir, Mo, Nb, Ni, Pd, Pt, Pt/Pd, Ta.

Discuss the possibilities and settings with Geert-Jan Janssen. Operation manual. (pdf, 348 kB)

Cryo-unit of the FESEM combined with Alto nitrogen slush freezing

The cryo-SEM technique offers the great advantage to enable the observation of surfaces of slush frozen fresh biological material as well as hydrated samples in a native state.

Moreover, freeze-fracturing followed by sublimation and coating can be applied to the frozen material so that inner surfaces can be investigated. Further introduction on this technique in an educational page of the Virtual Classroom Biology (Radboud University Nijmegen).