FEI Company
and Imago Scientific Instruments jointly announced today that Chalmers University
has installed Imago's LEAP® 3000X HR® atom probe in the university's
Applied Physics Microscopy and Microanalysis facility, based in Goteborg, Sweden.
The atomic-scale, three-dimensional imaging and analysis provided by the atom
probe complements the advanced capabilities of the institute's existing
suite of FEI systems, and further enhances the facility's reputation as
a world-class center for atomic-scale research.
Imago President, Emmanuel Lakios, commented, “This is the sixth atom
probe system that Imago has installed in Europe. We are honored to have been
selected by Chalmers University and are gratified at the expanding installed
base of Imago atom probes.”
“The Chalmers University selection of instruments from Imago and FEI
demonstrates the winning combination of our technologies and companies,”
stated Don Kania, president and CEO of FEI. “FEI and Imago recently announced
a comprehensive collaboration on the distribution and marketing of Imago's
LEAP product line, as the microscopes are complementary to the FEI Titan™
family of scanning transmission electron microscopes (S/TEM).”
Chalmers Professor, Krystyna Stiller, adds, “The LEAP atom probe has
the unique ability to build a three-dimensional representation of the sample
that includes the type and location of every atom in the sampled volume. Like
TEM, it can interrogate the sample on the scale of individual atoms, but it
provides information that is different and complementary. For example, the projection
mechanism of TEM is very good at visualizing spatial relationships among atoms
(crystallography), whereas the atom-by-atom mass-based identification of the
atom probe can distinguish among atomic species that would generate little contrast
in TEM. The atom probe also side-steps TEM's requirement for ultrathin
samples and eliminates the thickness of the sample as a factor determining the
quality of the result.”
The Microscopy and Microanalysis Research Group at Chalmers has more than 30
years experience developing and utilizing atom probe instrumentation. Chalmers
selected Imago's LEAP atom probe after a competitive evaluation of the
technical capabilities of several atom probe solutions. Key performance criteria
in the final selection were Imago's best-in-class mass resolution and
data rate. Imago's LEAP 3000X HR microscope will compliment the FEI systems
already in use at the facility, including: Titan™ 80-300 S/TEM, Strata™
DB-235 DualBeam™, and Quanta™ 200 Environmental Scanning Electron
Microscope (ESEM).
Posted September 8th, 2008
