Post 3 UK Lab Equipment

The first instrument I'll be talking about is the scanning electron microscope. No just as a warning I've never heard of any of these instruments before and I had to do a lot of research to understand what they do and how they work. The scanning electron microscope or SEM is used to produce high resolution images of solid objects at the micro and nano level. The SEM is able to produce picture at a resolution of 10 nanometers which is incredibly small. This incredibly powerful microscope allows scientist to study the characteristics of solid objects. The way this SEM works is that it produces a focused stream of electrons over the solid surface that can be used to create an image. The image is created because as the stream of electrons is reflecting off of the solid object it will bounce off at different frequencies and signals which allow the scientist to gather the data and make a topography and composition of the solid sample. Some applications of this microscope are interesting because people use SEM in todays world to check their superconductors, nano tubes, and other nanoscopic technology they will use SEM to make sure that what they're creating will work. 

The second piece of equipment is the focused ion beam. The FIB works the same way SEM does with the exception that instead of using electrons the FIB uses ions in the beam which allows for the beam at low rates to create images and at high rates cute the solid at a nanoscopic level. From the research I've done there are multiple ways in which the focused ion beam can be used, it can be used with a gas or it can be used side by side with the SEM. The focused ion beam is used to help create images and preparation of solid objects. The most common technique is FIB-SEM which is used to produce 2D and 3D images of topography of the nanoscopic level of a solid object. The way this works is the FIB adds a second beam to the SEM part and that second beam will cut into the material while the SEM beam will create the image of the topography and of the solid sample. The other FIB use if found was the FIB-TEM. FIB-TEM works the same way as FIB-SEM, but it is a more precise beam which allows for the machine to create more detailed and smaller images. The difference between FIB-SEM and FIB-TEM is that FIB-SEM is used to see the whole big picture of the sample while as I mentioned above the FIB-TEM is used for a more precise smaller picture. The modern applications of FIB are used to help make semiconductors and other mechanical nano tools that help run our technology. There is an interesting biological use for FIB in which scientist use FIB-TEM/SEM to look at specific parts of the cell which allow them to study them in a greater detail than before.

The final instrument is the Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy on SEM. now the normal EDS is a type of x-ray spectroscopy that can be used to look at elemental and chemicals compositions of of certain materials and by looking that the compositions you can learn more details about the elements or chemicals you're looking at. The EDS on SEM is used to identify unknown compounds, reverse engineering, and can be used for surface analysis. Now this is very complex, but I think this works by having the SEM beam (full of electrons) focus on the material which irritates it which results in the emission of x-ray characteristics which correspond to the element/elements in the compounds. I struggled a lot trying to find the applications of the EDS on SEM, but for biology this can be used to look further into cells, and this can be useful to study parts of the cells that we don't quite understand fully. I think that this machine can help in the chemical field a lot thought, Since the main point of this machine is to look at the chemical and elemental composition of the compound this can be used to help identify unknow compounds, but also help us study the physical and chemical characteristics of certain elements