Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope

The following is an SOP for the Philips XL 40 ESEM.

Loss Prevention

• Specimens must be secured onto a mount.
• A specimen must not be larger than 4 inches tall.
• Do not work at z-positions less than 10 mm.
• Do not load multiple specimens having differences in height greater than 5 mm.
• Always use rubber gloves to handle specimens and specimen holders.

Procedure

1. If any sample is non conductive then it will first need to be carbon coated or Pt/Pd coated.
2. Secure sample onto a mount, then place the mount in a pin hole located within the ESEM chamber.
3. Turn Chamber Camera on.
4. Crack open the main valve of the Nitrogen (N₂) cylinder.
5. Close chamber door and hold shut.
6. In the Vaccum window, click the vent button while holding the chamber door shut.
7. Expand the BEAM dialog and click the SET GUN button. Make sure the Autobias and Autosaturation are unchecked and the gun bias position is 1.
8. In the Detectors tab, select SE.
9. Adjust brightness and contrast knobs until features are visible.
10. Reduce magnification to a minimum and find your sample by click and dragging the mouse cursor on the screen.
11. Once sample is found increase magnification and adjust focus. Use fine focus for magnifications past 1000x, use coarse focus for magnitudes equal to and less than 1000x.
12. Check the working distance (WD) in the data bar on the bottom dialog box and see if it matches the z-position in the stage dialog box. If these do not match then retrain the Z-position.
13. Optimize an image by adjusting the magnification, brightness and contrast.
14. When ready to capture an image, open the Aztec software, or any other compatible image capturing software.
15. Open "Point & ID" from the Techniques tab.
16. Click New Specimen.
17. Click on Scan Image Tab.
18. Click start to acquire an image.