On June 21st and 22nd, Quantum Design UK and Ireland played host to academic and commercial guests, all keen to come and see the brand new FusionScope™. The system was on its world tour, before heading off to the Advanced Materials Show and the Microscience Microscopy Congress.
The FusionScope is an easy-to-use correlative microscopy platform designed from the ground up to add the benefits of SEM imaging to a wide range of AFM measurement techniques. Featuring an innovative shared coordinate system to automatically align AFM and SEM operations for measurements and sample positioning, within a single software interface you now can easily identify your area of interest, measure your sample, and combine your imaging data in real time.
“I was very impressed with the system in its current stage. It is a very compact, easy-to-use SEM and AFM correlative microscope platform. The AFM is very innovative, with the Self-sensing Piezoresistive cantilever design not only eliminating the tedious work of laser spot alignment in traditional AFMs, but still being able to acquire sub-nanometer (atomic) resolution of data, as obtained in the high vacuum chamber.”
Dr. Suguo Huo, London Centre for Nanotechnology
“Cantilever exchange was also very easy to perform. This, and the system being built to be modular so that options such as auto-exchange of cantilevers can be added on an existing system at a later date, can really save us AFM users a lot of trouble and tedious work when it comes to the AFM setup. I am also impressed by the Field Emission SEM which, although tiny relative to other SEM Field Emission sources, can achieve less than 10nm resolution. This SEM can be used to easily find the desirable imaging area on the sample but it can also be used to monitor and inspect the AFM tip directly.”
Dr. Suguo Huo, UCL
“The FusionScope can easily acquire, match and correlate the SEM image with the AFM image at the same exact area of the sample. There are also two ports already pre-built into the system so that options such as EDX, Gas Injection, Micro Manipulator and others can be added into the system at a later date.
The whole system, AFM and SEM both, is also very easy to maintain with the SEM column, control boards and other aspects easy to install, remove and replace if needed in order to minimise system down-time during repairs.
Overall, the FusionScope is a very innovative, compact and user-friendly microscope for imaging, metrology and characterisation. The LCN cleanroom is keen to have one once we have funding.”
Dr. Suguo Huo
Technical Manager Electron and Ion Beam Facility
London Centre for Nanotechnology
To learn more about the FusionScope, contact our Technical Product Manager, Dr. Satyam Ladva by email or call (01372) 378822.
