News

New Rigaku Miniflex in the MCF

Demonstrations this Friday, August 12, 3:00-6:00PM

Interior View of Miniflex

The benchtop XRD from Rigaku is now available for use in the MCF and is on SUMS! More information about the instrument can be found here! This Friday, August 12, from 3:00-6:00, David Tavakoli will be demonstrating the capabilities of the newest XRD on campus. If you have samples you would like to try or are curious and want to know more, please make an appointment.

AFM Workshop with Bruker, March 29th!

Join us Tuesday, March 29, for a free atomic force microscopy (AFM), nanoscale infrared (AFM-IR) spectroscopy, and nanoindentation workshop at the Georgia Institute of Technology. During the workshop, we will explore the latest advances in AFM, BioAFM, AFM-IR, nanoindentation technologies, and perform hands-on demonstrations with Bruker’s Dimension Icon AFM.

Please register for our workshop at this link!

If you would like to download the flyer, you can do so here.

 

XRDs moving on March 6-March11, 2022

Hello everyone,

Our current set of XRD instruments, while capable and well-maintained, are beyond their design lifetime and – save for the Empyrean – are no longer supported by the OEM.  At the same time, we have had extensive conversations with faculty on campus who want to do more advanced XRD measurements than our current tools will support.
To address both issues:  We have some big news to share. With the financial and technical support of the EVPR and Prof. M. Mourigal, the MCF is acquiring three new XRD systems from Rigaku to be housed in the Marcus Microanalysis lab in the MCF.  This acquisition will add or extend capabilities for:
  • Cryo measurements (down to LHe temps)
  • PDF measurements
  • Auto-samplers for multi-sample measurements.
Though there will be a learning curve for the new data analysis SW, researchers will be able to do that analysis on their own computers instead of having to use the one central system in the MCF lab.
Not to bury the lede, but to prepare for the installation of the the XRDs, the existing PANalytical instruments will be moving to the Paper Tricentennial Building the week of March 6th. We anticipate that they will be down from March 6 to March 10, and should be available for use by Monday, March 13th. Please plan to complete your XRD work by Sunday, March 5th. 
There will be a transition of MCF support from the Panalytical systems to the Rigaku systems over the rest of calendar year 2022, but there should always be an operational PXRD and single-crystal system available in the MCF.

We want to stress that we are not losing any currently available capabilities and are adding several advanced measurement modes.  The new instruments give us flexibility to augment with additional capabilities over time.

Please contact David Tavakoli or another member of the MCF staff if you have any questions or concerns.

The MCF has acquired the new codes for the Crystalmaker Software suite and it is available for download for students and staff at Georgia Tech! The crystalmaker suite will enable you to create crystal models, simulate XRD patterns, and generate CIFs. For the codes, please contact David Tavakoli (david.tavakoli@mse.gatech.edu) from a GT email address. The codes will also be available from OIT in the new year.

More information can be found here.

Measurement & Characterization December Demo Days in Pettit 160

 

On Thursday and Friday, December 2nd & 3rd, the MCF in coordination with the IEN is hosting two days of measurement and characterization in the Pettit Microelectronics Building.

We plan to highlight previously available and new capabilities added over the last year for 2D, 3D, x-ray, and elemental measurements.

Please bring samples you are interested in measuring and staff will be happy to help you.

Download the flyer below, and we hope to see you there!

Where: Pettit 160
When: December 2nd & 3rd | 10:00AM – 5:00 PM

If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact the MCF Staff:

atavakoli6@gatech.edu, 770-689-6840

Pettit MCF Demo Day Advert Dec 2021

As part of it’s ongoing expansion of materials analysis capabilities, the IEN / IMat Materials Charcterization Facility is finalizing plans to house a new ICP-MS instrument.

The planned vendor of this instrument, Thermo Fisher Scientific, is giving a talk on its capabilities and applications Thursday, October 28th at 1:00 in conference room 1116 in the Marcus Nanotechnology building.

Any user generally interested in this technique and/or specifically in need of mass-spectroscopy chemical analysis is encouraged to attend.

See the attached flyer for details, please forward to any interested colleagues, and let the MCF staff know if you have any questions.

Regards,

Walter Henderson

Thermo ICPMS

Fall 2021 Image Contest is now live!

After a hiatus, the quarterly MCF Image Contest is back and  the Fall 2021 submissions can be submitted here! Three quarterly winners of the contest will each receive 5 free hours on the characterization tool of their choosing and be entered into a semi-annual Grand Prize selection for cash prizes of $60 for First Prize and $30 for each of the two Second Prize winners.

Previous entries can be seen here!

If you are uncertain as to the rules of the submission process, those can be reviewed here.

New FIB-SEM

A new focus ion beam (FIB) from Thermo Scientific will be installed in MCF. This FIB, Helios 5 CX dualbeam ,  is to replace the old Nova 200 FIB-SEM which is removed from campus.

This new FIB will be equipped with highly automated, multisite, fastest and easiest sample preparation for S/TEM.
Extreme high resolution (1nm) at low acceleration voltage 1kV can be achieved in SEM mode.
Acceleration voltage for SEM is 200V-30kV.
Acceleration voltage for ion beam is 500V-30kV.

For more information with regards to training or use of this facility, please contact Mengkun Tian.

Helios 5 CX DualBeam for Materials Science