al.com, AL
10-02-07
Microscope can see atoms in 3-D
PATRICK HICKERSON
News staff writer
The University of Alabama is breaking in a new microscope that journeys down
to individual atoms in startling 3-D.
UA's Local Electrode Atom Probe allows analysis of just about anything in the
realm where things are measured in nanometers.
The high-end probe could give UA an advantage in recruiting faculty and
students interested in the dash for nanotechnology research. The closest probe
of its kind is at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
The microscope, when rigged with a laser, thermally agitates a specimen,
allowing atoms to evaporate from the surface and be collected in a detector. On
a computer, the detector's "hits" are used to form a three-dimensional image of
the sample, atom-by-atom.
It might be possible to analyze lightweight car frames and smaller
semiconductors with the new device at UA's Central Analytical Facility in the Tom
Bevill Energy, Mineral and Materials Science Research Building.
The microscope, which cost about $1.5 million, is the first in the Southeast for an
academic institution, and the fourth at an academic institution nationwide, say
officials.
It was bought with a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation along
with funding from UA and the manufacturer, Imago Scientific Instruments, based
in Madison, Wis.
Similar probes are at Northwestern University, the University of North Texas and
Iowa State University.
The growing field of nanotechnology delves in the incredibly small, with features
about 100 nanometers across.
What's a nanometer?