Progress to Date

Planning.--

The recondition and refurbishing of the laboratory space to place the field emission scanning electron microscope has ended.

Description of Equipment.--

The equipment selected is a LEO SUPRA 35 Field Emission SEM equipped with an energy dispersive spectrometer INCA 200 made by Oxford Instruments. Under our consideration the specifications of the equipment selected are as follows:

• Resolution:                       2.1nm at 1kV, 1.3nm at 15kV and 1.0nm at 20kV.

• High Tension Range:        100V to 30kV

• Beam Current:                 4pA to 20nA

• Gun:                                Schottky Field Emission Gun

• Magnification Range:       20X to 900,000X

• Detectors:                       Everhardt Thornley Secondary Electron Detector; In-lens Secondary Electron Detector; Specimen Current Detector;     Back Scattering Electron Detector

Our equipment during installation. From left to right: Prof. Francisco Rodriguez (Mech. Eng. UPRM), John Laughlin (Zeiss Engineer) and V. Cudris (graduate student).

Since the installation of the microscope the following activities courses and modules has been carried out::

Demonstration of the SEM capabilities to the students (K-8 to K-10) of the Math and Science Club of our local school "Immaculada".  (Photo: courtesy fo Prof. Lourdes Rosario).

With the collaboration of Prof. Scott Chumbley and Amy Chumbley of Iowa State University (http://mse.iastate.edu/excel/) about 50 UPRM students that were enrolled in the course of Engineering Materials for Electrical Engineers, were able to have "remote  hands-on" experiences in the use of a scanning electron microscope.

The SEM located at ISU was controlled remotely by UPRM students. With the use of a "smart-board" in this activity, the students were able to move the sample, focus, change magnification, change detectors, etc by pushing virtual buttons on the board.       

Students enrolled in the Engineering Materials for Electrical Engineers course were given an overview of the capabilities of our field emission scanning electron microscope.

K-10 to K-12 students of the Upward Bound Math & Science Program from the Inter American University of PR - San German Campus were given an overview of the application of the field emission SEM in the analysis of solid materials.

Every summer the Mechanical Engineering Department in collaboration with the Society for Women Engineers carries out a Summer Camp for High School Female Students. These students (about 25) were demonstrated the capabilities of our SEM for the analysis of inorganic solids and biological samples.