Cryo FIB-SEM Facility
The cryo FIB-SEM facility (located in the school of Physics and Astronomy) is available for use to all researchers across the university.
The cryo FIB-SEM facility contains a Zeiss Crossbeam 550 FIB-SEM equipped with a Quorum Technologies PP3010T cryogenic system, offering a multitude of powerful techniques to analyse a large range of hard and soft samples. The microscope offers high resolution electron imaging with resolution down to 1nm, elemental contrast and identification with the Oxford Instruments XMaxN 150 EDX detector, and allows for fast and accurate milling, and patterning, using the focussed ion beam (FIB).
The FIB opens a wide range of techniques to compliment the SEM, such as nanoscale tomography and nano/microfabrication; while the cryo system allows for the ability to work on liquids, gels, polymers, biological matter and many other materials.
The Crossbeam is located in a biological containment level 1 lab, allowing some biological samples to be imaged. The lab is also equipped with a Leica HPM100 High Pressure Freezer and Leica ASF2 freeze substitution unit.