Scanning Electron Microscopy

Science Afternoon

Science Afternoon

Science Afternoon

Science Afternoon

The afternoon began with the use of the Hitachi TM3000 Portable Scanning Electron Microscope designed to be simple enough to be used by school kids – and so certainly middle school teachers should be able to look at the objects they brought: butterfly wings, reptile skin, and a fly! Unlike the powerful and more precise SEMs used at NIST, this microscope requires no special setup and only a two--‐minute time to vacuum. Bob Gordon of Hitachi explains that the electrons are produced by a tungsten filament, just like in an incandescent light bulb, but since the sample is under a vacuum with almost all the air removed, the electrons can be focused to the sample and directed to produce an image.

with NIST scientists Andras Vladar, Brad Damazo, Mike Postek, Prem Kavuri, Bin Ming, and Kate Klein, plus Bob Gordon of Hitachi High Technologies America, Jenny Harms of the Hitachi Foundation, and Rei Tsuchiya of Hitachi, Ltd.

Supplemental Materials

• Additional information, tools, weblinks, and photos from the day
• Images from Hitachi SEM demonstration
• NIST SEM Presentation
  
  or NIST SEM Presentation