Sep 8 2008
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).