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New system for determining crystal orientation
TOOLS & TECHNIQUES
Optical tables with intelligence New optical tables in L-shaped and end-to-end configurations have been introduced by Newport Corporation as part of its SmartTable series of products. The ST-UT2 doubled tables incorporate tuned mass dampers to reduce unwanted vibrations and provide fast settling times and long-term stability. The optical tables can also be upgraded with the company’s IQ Damping Technology®. This allows tabledamping performance to be monitored and adjusted actively. The result is a dramatically quieter table surface on which measurements can be made that previously required expensive environmental equipment. Newport Spectra-Physics has launched a high-power picosecond ultraviolet laser for high-throughput material processing. Pantera™ is a diodepumped solid-state laser that uses a fiber amplifier platform to deliver 12 W at 255 nm wavelength. It provides picosecond laser pulses at 80 MHz repetition rates. Contact: www.newport.com
Piezo ceramic motors offer precision control A set of compact ceramic piezo motors and actuators are available from Physik Instrumente (PI) for precision motion control in areas like semiconductor technology, optics and imaging, and scanning microscopy. High-speed motors, high-force actuators, and zerowear flexure designs are available. The motors offer millisecond responsiveness, are nonmagnetic and vacuum compatible, and can be backed to 150°C. Since the piezo linear motors generate linear motion directly, there is no need to transform rotation with gears and leadscrews as in servo or stepper motor actuators. This means backlash and wear are eliminated. The piezo ceramic actuators show high stiffness and are self-locking when powered down with nanometer position stability. PiezoMove® flexure actuators are suitable for short travel ranges, high forces, and rapid response. PILine® ultrasonic motor actuators provide speeds up to 800 mm/s. Piezo stepping linear motors NEXACT® and NEXLINE® feature higher resolution and force. Contact: www.physikinstrumente.com
maintenance free. The use of a 30 mm XFlash® silicon drift detector offers high speed and energy resolution and requires no cooling water. Contact: www.bruker-axs.com
Making Raman routine
Bringing electron microscopy to the bench Nikon Instruments and JEOL have joined forces to produce a new benchtop scanning electron microscope (SEM). It can be used as a simple screening instrument by electron microscopists, or as a higher resolution alternative to the light microscope. Basic operation of the benchtop microscope is intended to be as simple as using a digital camera, with auto focus, contrast, and brightness controls. Furthermore, no sample preparation is necessary for conductive or nonconductive specimens.
The DXR Raman microscope from Thermo Scientific is designed to make the Raman technique accessible to a wider audience. By automating adjustments, alignment, and calibration, the company hopes to make obtaining quality Raman data available to any laboratory as a routine analytical tool. The microscope features high spatial resolution along with ease of use. Thermo Scientific has also introduced the ARL OPTIM’X wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer. The system features fully automated sample preparation, handling, and XRF analysis for fast and reproducible results, all in a footprint of <1 m2. Contact: www.thermo.com
The NeoScope SEM operates in both low and high vacuum modes and has three accelerating voltage settings. It offers secondary electron and backscattered electron imaging, 10–20 000x magnification, and up to 5 nm resolution. Contact: www.jeol.com, www.nikoninstruments.com
Individual particles sized up in the SEM
New system for determining crystal orientation A crystal orientation analyzer that uses a novel energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction (EDXRD) method has been developed by Bruker AXS. The D2 CRYSO system is ideal for determining the lattice orientations of medium to large crystals for the growth and processing of single-crystal materials such as Si, SiC, GaAs, diamond, and metals like Ni, Ag, and Au. The new EDXRD method eliminates the need for multiple rotation axes or expensive area detectors, making the D2 CRYSO system robust and essentially
FEI Company and Malvern Instruments have teamed up to offer a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with particle characterization software for obtaining size and shape information on submicron particles. Malvern already offers its particle analysis software with a traditional optical microscope in their Morphologi G3 instrument. In the release of Quanta Morphologi, the software has now been combined with the high magnification and resolving power of FEI’s Quanta field-emission SEM. The new instrument can perform automated analysis of individual particles, obtain surface detail, and perform statistical analysis to characterize particle size and shape distributions within polydisperse samples. Contact: www.fei.com, www.malvern.co.uk
MAY 2008 | VOLUME 11 | NUMBER 5
55
Optical tables with intelligence New optical tables in L-shaped and end-to-end configurations have been introduced by Newport Corporation as part of its SmartTable series of products. The ST-UT2 doubled tables incorporate tuned mass dampers to reduce unwanted vibrations and provide fast settling times and long-term stability. The optical tables can also be upgraded with the company’s IQ Damping Technology®. This allows tabledamping performance to be monitored and adjusted actively. The result is a dramatically quieter table surface on which measurements can be made that previously required expensive environmental equipment. Newport Spectra-Physics has launched a high-power picosecond ultraviolet laser for high-throughput material processing. Pantera™ is a diodepumped solid-state laser that uses a fiber amplifier platform to deliver 12 W at 255 nm wavelength. It provides picosecond laser pulses at 80 MHz repetition rates. Contact: www.newport.com
Piezo ceramic motors offer precision control A set of compact ceramic piezo motors and actuators are available from Physik Instrumente (PI) for precision motion control in areas like semiconductor technology, optics and imaging, and scanning microscopy. High-speed motors, high-force actuators, and zerowear flexure designs are available. The motors offer millisecond responsiveness, are nonmagnetic and vacuum compatible, and can be backed to 150°C. Since the piezo linear motors generate linear motion directly, there is no need to transform rotation with gears and leadscrews as in servo or stepper motor actuators. This means backlash and wear are eliminated. The piezo ceramic actuators show high stiffness and are self-locking when powered down with nanometer position stability. PiezoMove® flexure actuators are suitable for short travel ranges, high forces, and rapid response. PILine® ultrasonic motor actuators provide speeds up to 800 mm/s. Piezo stepping linear motors NEXACT® and NEXLINE® feature higher resolution and force. Contact: www.physikinstrumente.com
maintenance free. The use of a 30 mm XFlash® silicon drift detector offers high speed and energy resolution and requires no cooling water. Contact: www.bruker-axs.com
Making Raman routine
Bringing electron microscopy to the bench Nikon Instruments and JEOL have joined forces to produce a new benchtop scanning electron microscope (SEM). It can be used as a simple screening instrument by electron microscopists, or as a higher resolution alternative to the light microscope. Basic operation of the benchtop microscope is intended to be as simple as using a digital camera, with auto focus, contrast, and brightness controls. Furthermore, no sample preparation is necessary for conductive or nonconductive specimens.
The DXR Raman microscope from Thermo Scientific is designed to make the Raman technique accessible to a wider audience. By automating adjustments, alignment, and calibration, the company hopes to make obtaining quality Raman data available to any laboratory as a routine analytical tool. The microscope features high spatial resolution along with ease of use. Thermo Scientific has also introduced the ARL OPTIM’X wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer. The system features fully automated sample preparation, handling, and XRF analysis for fast and reproducible results, all in a footprint of <1 m2. Contact: www.thermo.com
The NeoScope SEM operates in both low and high vacuum modes and has three accelerating voltage settings. It offers secondary electron and backscattered electron imaging, 10–20 000x magnification, and up to 5 nm resolution. Contact: www.jeol.com, www.nikoninstruments.com
Individual particles sized up in the SEM
New system for determining crystal orientation A crystal orientation analyzer that uses a novel energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction (EDXRD) method has been developed by Bruker AXS. The D2 CRYSO system is ideal for determining the lattice orientations of medium to large crystals for the growth and processing of single-crystal materials such as Si, SiC, GaAs, diamond, and metals like Ni, Ag, and Au. The new EDXRD method eliminates the need for multiple rotation axes or expensive area detectors, making the D2 CRYSO system robust and essentially
FEI Company and Malvern Instruments have teamed up to offer a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with particle characterization software for obtaining size and shape information on submicron particles. Malvern already offers its particle analysis software with a traditional optical microscope in their Morphologi G3 instrument. In the release of Quanta Morphologi, the software has now been combined with the high magnification and resolving power of FEI’s Quanta field-emission SEM. The new instrument can perform automated analysis of individual particles, obtain surface detail, and perform statistical analysis to characterize particle size and shape distributions within polydisperse samples. Contact: www.fei.com, www.malvern.co.uk
MAY 2008 | VOLUME 11 | NUMBER 5
55