We are excited to invite you to the University of Chicago’s Materials Research Center featuring Atomic Force Microscopy, Nanoindentation, Electron Microscopy and Raman Microscopy. Come join us on April 15, 2025 for a day of theory and applications, with the opportunity to register your own sample for a hands-on workshop with application specialists.
For Parking information please see Visit the JFI | The James Franck Institute | The University of Chicago
Fly Ash sample
Nanoelectrical Characterization with AFM
Raman AFM Graphene Flake
Micro-organism in seashell
Location
William Echert Research Center (ERC) Room 161
5640 S. Ellis Ave Chicago, IL 60637
Date
April 15, 2025
Businesses
Asylum Research, NanoAnalysis, WITec | Raman
Tuesday, April 15, 2025
8:30 a.m. Coffee and Networking
9:00 a.m. Welcome and Overview
9:05 a.m. Ted Limpoco (Oxford Instruments)
Title: What can I see with an Atomic Force Microscope
9:50 a.m Zehra Naqvi with Jiwoong Park Group (University of Chicago)
Title: TBD
10:00 a.m Speaker (University of Chicago)
Title: TBD
10:10 a.m Speaker (University of Chicago)
Title: TBD
10:30 a.m. Roman Mouginot (Oxford Instruments)
Title: Nanoindentation: Mapping the Modulus
11:15 a.m. Drew W. Cunningham (Oxford Instruments)
Title: Confocal Raman-Imaging Solutions: An Overview and Applications
12:00 Lunch break
1:00 p.m. David Richards (Oxford Instruments)
Title: Pushing the Boundaries of Microanalysis in SEM with the BEX Technique
1:45 p.m. Young-Hwan Kim with Dmitri Talapin Group (University of Chicago)
Title: TBD
1:55 p.m. Speaker (University of Chicago)
Title: TBD
2:05 p.m. Speaker (University of Chicago)
Title: TBD
2:30 p.m. Facility Tour
3:00 p.m. Stay & See Lab demonstrations
4:50 p.m. Thanks and Prize
Exclusive 1hr Workshops: April 16-17, 2025 at the MPML:
Register for a live demonstration with your own sample, where you will:
Experience the capabilities through hands-on demonstrations.
Choose Electron Microscopy | Choose AFM | Choose Raman |
| Enhanced Throughput and Sensitivity in EDS Analysis: Experience an unprecedented increase in speed, up to 100x faster, with Unity’s simultaneous Backscatter and Elemental mapping capabilities. The BEX detector ensures seamless operation. Ultim Extreme windowless provides increased sensitivity for light element, low kV, high spatial resolution analyses. | Easy Operation: SpotOn™ makes the fully motorized laser and detector alignment one-click GetReal™ automatically calibrates the cantilever spring constant and sensitivity blueDrive™ makes tapping mode simpler, more stable, and more quantitative | Laser Control: Know the exact power of the laser being delivered to your sample with TruePower real-time laser power determination to 0.1 mW accuracy. Preserve delicate samples and reproduce exact measurement conditions. |
| Navigate with Chemistry: The fast throughput allows for high frame rate EDS maps so you can survey your sample by chemistry. | Results in Seconds: Using a smaller spot size allows for smaller probes and faster scanning speeds from 10x to 100x faster than traditional AFM’s. | Coupler Concept: See the couplers tower over the microscope to expand the flexibility and versatility of the alpha300. |
| Cartography: Create large area maps in a simple streamlined manner. You can now complete "overnight runs" in the time it takes to grab a coffee. | Resolution: With a noise floor that is half of other AFM’s on the market, the Cypher has unmatched mechanical stability and exceptionally low drift. | Seek and Find: ParticleScout automates the Raman analysis of particles and TrueMatch identifies the chemical compounds. |
| Complete data: Unity's unique design eliminates shadowing and lets you analyze a rough sample in one step. | Small Footprint, Huge Potential: No additional hood or vibration isolation necessary. Expand the capabilities with a variety of accessories and upgrades. | Have It All: Delivering advanced chemical characterization with industry-leading speed, sensitivity and resolution – simultaneously. |
Advanced AFM Modes for Materials Characterization
High-performance atomic force microscopes (AFMs) like Oxford Instrument’s Cypher, Vero, or Jupiter routinely visualize nanometer-sized topographic features of surfaces down to atoms and point defects. This is achieved using a super-sharp stylus (typically less than 10 nm at the probe tip) that essentially “touches” the surface with exquisitely controlled interaction forces. In addition, contact or proximity to the surface allows us to simultaneously measure properties, such as our materials’ mechanical, electrical, and magnetic response. We can thus obtain very local information that enables us to correlate these properties to nanometer-sized topographic features and better understand our materials.
In this presentation, we will survey advanced AFM modes that measure properties such as Young’s modulus, adhesion, and viscoelastic response; current and capacitance; contact potential and work function; static charge and magnetic field gradients; and, finally, electromechanical or piezoelectric response.
These various measurement modes, combined with its ultrahigh resolution, highlight the strength and versatility of AFMs in materials characterization and nanotechnology research.
Speaker Bio:
Ted Limpoco is a Senior Applications Specialist at Oxford Instruments with nearly 20 years of AFM experience in materials research and in his applications role. He was previously a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Florida.
Historically, capturing electron images and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) data required two subsequent steps and often took minutes to collect valuable maps even with large area EDS detectors. Finding an area of interest within a sample involved a cycle of hunting-and-pecking for potentially interesting data using the grayscale electron image. This methodology was time-consuming and could result in missing critical information that wasn’t revealed in the electron imaging alone.
In this talk we will present a new technique that simultaneously collects backscatter electrons and X-rays coined “BEX Imaging”. Key to this technique is a unique detector that is positioned under the pole piece of the SEM. This geometry allows significantly enhanced x-ray data collection and eliminates lost data from shadowing. Users will now see elemental data in color as they scan their sample enabling them to find relevant areas for further analysis. Some specific examples include locating contamination in raw materials for quality assurance; examination of chemistry in fracture surfaces; and rapid, full-scale analysis of larger samples.
With the advent of BEX imaging, the vicious cycle of guess-and-check analysis can be broken. Important information is quickly and reliably identified without missing key details. BEX imaging offers a paradigm shift in the microanalysis community as we go from grayscale to colored elemental images.
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