Advanced Materials Characterisation

Equipment

Below is a list of the JdLC facilities we use in a regular basis.

• Tescan Mira Variable Pressure (VP) Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (VP FESEM)
• Zeiss Neon Focused Ion Beam (FIB) FEG SEM
• Zeiss Evo SEM
• Tescan S8000 VP FEG SEM
• Tescan Vega3 VP SEM
• Tescan Lyra Focused Ion Beam (FIB) FEG SEM
• Tescan TIMA FEG SEM
• FEI Talos FS200X G2 FEG Transmission electron microscope (TEM)
• Bruker D8 advance XRD
• Bruker D8 discover XRD
• Bruker NANOTAR small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS)
• X-Ray photoelectron spectroscope (XPS)
• LEAP 4000X HR Atom Probe Tomography (APT)

The Focused Ion Beam enables a range of nano-lithography investigations, including sample preparation for TEM and APT. Site-specific TEM sample preparation and cross-sectional view underneath the corrosion product is critically important, and this can be done by the FIB FESEM.

The X-Ray diffraction capabilities include identification and quantification of crystalline phases and the determination of amorphous content of the material, crystal size, nanoparticle size and pore size, etc. We also have in-situ diffraction capabilities that enable thermal experiments at up to 1200°C in air, vacuum, inert gas and capillaries.

JdLC also accommodates sample preparation requirements for corrosion and materials research. These include resin mounting and mechanical polishing down to nanoscale characterisation requirements by a suite of instruments that include Struers Levamin, Struers Tegramin-30 and Buehler Vibromet 2. A SEMPrep2 broad beam ion milling system from Technoorg Linda enables preparing defect-free EBSD/EDS samples for subsurface investigations.

The analytical course series of JdLC upskills researchers and students to learn and apply the sophisticated techniques in their project context.

You will find examples of how our researchers use extraordinary facilities at the JdLC in our Knowledge section.