Richter, Hanno 1-2
SEM 2
1. If it’s misbehaving, restart with cranking the key to start.
2. Press vent button
3. Fix stage in stage holder
a. Use 32 mm holder.
4. Slide both into chamber.
5. Keep an eye in tilt angle and working distance.
a. Do not go over maximum tilt angle.
b. i.e. 15o at 8mm WD
6. Close chamber.
7. Click “evac”
8. You should hear a valve pump.
a. Wait for several minutes, you will hear clicking.
9. Be sure the HT is ready, this means its okay to put high tension (voltage).
10. Click HT
11. Set spot size to 11 o’clock.
12. Turn brightness to the right.
a. Or in LSP use brightness to position the line above the baseline.
13. Press emission image.
14. Slowly turn filament clockwise.
a. Display in uA shows kV + 40
b. You want 5-10 kV.
15. Measure until saturation is reached (stable peak).
a. If you turn off the emission image, you see a line, which should not
change in height at saturation point.
b. Do not go higher than the stop lever lets you.
16. Press PIC.
17. Turn out emission image.
a. Press view.
b. Press film data to see resolution data.
c. Press view to go to low magnification.
d. Use focus (coarse, fine) to find optimum plane.
e. Use contrast and brightness to optimize image.
f. Use tilt (x/y) to find highest image brightness (optimum beam position).
18. Press “sep” to check brightness and contrast on the left screen.
19. Line should minimum at second square from left and right.
20. Play with the stigmator keys at 50000x resolution
21. Decrease spot size to maybe to 9 o’clock.
22. Once image is okay, turn on the computer.
23. Click on apple symbol
24. Open NIH image.
25. Click into the application
26. Click special
27. Start capturing
28. Set the offset
Richter, Hanno 2-2
29. Set the gain
30. Get rid of red spots
a. Image should look like SEM sample image.
31. Click shutter.
32. Press “Apple Key” + “G” to grab image
a. Should be sharp and white lines should be white.
33. Press “Apple Key” + “S” to move.
a. Always save as *.tip
34. Click freeze button on microscope to return to scanning mode.
a. If you walk away for short, turn down filament because this is what you
pay for.
35. Shut Down when done:
36. Turn filament to zero, this shuts the electron beam off.
37. Turn HT off.
38. turn film data off.
39. Vent chamber
40. Remove sample
41. Evacuate chamber again
42. Leave device on.