The Ion Microprobe Facility houses a LEO 1430 VP Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The SEM is equipped with a 4-quadrant backscattered electron detector (BSD) as well as an EDAX energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDS) system and an Oxford "mini-CL" cathodoluminescene detector. The "VP" option indicates that the SEM can operate under variable pressure mode, meaning that BSD, CL, and EDS analysis can be performed on uncoated samples.
The SEM can accommodate thin-sections, thick samples, pin-mounted samples, as well as "bulk" samples (up to a few inches across). The 5-axis stage is fully automated.
The SEM was funded by grants from NSF Instrumentation and Facilities and NASA Cosmochemistry, with matching contributions from UCLA. It is available for use by all facility visitors, as well as UCLA researchers and students.
