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Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy and its Application Possibilites in ISI ASCR
Neděla, Vilém
The first commercially available environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) was introduced in 1988 by Dr. G.D. Danilat and his company Electro Scan. Prof. Autrata and Doc. Jirák of the Institute of Scientific Instruments of the Academy of Science of the Czech Republic, public research institution, and the Brno University of Technology launched a laboratory operation with the first purely Czech ESEM AQUASEM in 1995. The Team of Environmental Electron Microscopy (EEM), headed by Dr. Vilém Neděla, a former student of Professor Autrata, has continued the nearly twenty-year tradition of ESEM progress in the Czech Republic. The team has studied interactions of electrons with high-pressure gas environments, designed, developed and simulated detection systems for SEM and ESEM and performed simulations of gas flows in ESEM. In interdisciplinary cooperation with various partners the team has developed and tested methods of observation of sensitive, native or live specimen studied under conditions of dynamic in-situ experiments using the today already obsolete ESEM AQUASEM II with directly heated tungsten cathode converted by Dr. Neděla at the Institute of Scientific Instruments of the Academy of Science of the Czech Republic still in his student years. In near future the institute plans purchase of a new ESEM with high resolution and a unique configuration of accessory analytical and other equipment. Thus a new laboratory of environmental electron microscopy with state-of-the-art equipment will be established at the ISI ASCR in Brno. The new laboratory will allow for specimen study with electron beam in combination with optional micro handling, dynamic in-situ experiments with specimen temperature variation from -25°C to 1000°C, or local gas and liquid injecting directly onto the sample.
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History of Electron Microscopy at the Institute of Scientific Instruments
Müllerová, Ilona
The development of the first transmission electron microscope (EM) at the Institute of Scientific Instruments (ISI) was completed in 1951. In 1954 a functional model of a desktop EM (the Tesla BS 242) was built and it won the Gold Medal at EXPO 1958. Over 1000 of these instruments were produced over a period of 20 years and exported to 20 countries. Unique transmission, emission and scanning EMs were developed and built during the 1960s. At the same time, the issues with high voltage sources, vacuum (and subsequently ultrahigh vacuum) and with the analysis of residual gases were resolved. In 1962, the first electron interference experiments in the world were carried out at ISI. Non-conventional forms of EM were also developed in the 1970s, e.g. interference shadow EM, Lorentz and tunneling EM, emission microscopy, as well as low energy electron diffraction [1]. Since 1973 the finite element method has been exploited for the computation of electrostatic and magnetic lenses. The ultrahigh vacuum scanning EM with cold field emission gun and an Auger spectrometer was fully developed and built at ISI in 1976, and the electron beam writer with a shaped beam and field emission gun in 1985. The development of new scintillation and cathodoluminescent screens began in the 1970s and our single crystal Yttrium Aluminium Garnet detector significantly improved detection systems all over the world. Low- and very-low-energy scanning EM was introduced to the world in 1990 as a unique technique. Today, it can achieve resolution as low as 4.5 nm at the incident electron energy of 20 eV.
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Main Activites of the Institute of Scientific Instruments
Müllerová, Ilona ; Radlička, Tomáš ; Mika, Filip ; Krzyžánek, Vladislav ; Neděla, Vilém ; Sobota, Jaroslav ; Zobač, Martin ; Kolařík, Vladimír ; Starčuk jr., Zenon ; Srnka, Aleš ; Jurák, Pavel ; Zemánek, Pavel ; Číp, Ondřej ; Lazar, Josef ; Mrňa, Libor
Institute of Scientific Instruments (ISI) was established in 1957 to develop diverse instrumental equipment for other institutes of the Academy of Sciences. ISI has long experience in research and development of electron microscopes, nuclear magnetic resonance equipment, coherent optics and related techniques. Nowadays the effort concentrates on scientific research in the field of methodology of physical properties of matter, in particular in the field of electron optics, electron microscopy and spectroscopy, microscopy for biomedicine, environmental electron microscopy, thin layers, electron and laser beam welding, electron beam lithography using Gaussian and shaped electron beam, nuclear magnetic resonance and spectroscopy, cryogenics and superconductivity, measurement and processing of biosignals in medicine, non-invasive cardiology, applications of focused laser beam (optical tweezers, long-range optical delivery of micro- and nano-objects) and lasers for measurement and metrology. ISI works both independently and in cooperation with universities, other research and professional institutions and with private companies at national and international level.
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