PACK POINTS
Tiny images, big results
Two new state-of-the-art microscope systems at NC State will help faculty and others understand materials at the smallest levels and provide an advantage in the tough competition for federal research dollars.
One system, an FEI Titan electron microscope, can enlarge images to more than 15 million times their actual size at resolutions up to two-billionths of an inch, image clarity so exact it’s known as “true atomic resolution.” The microscope can also perform two different types of spectroscopy, allowing researchers to determine the elements that make up a material.
Together, these technologies help researchers gain exquisitely detailed understandings of the materials they are studying. That should prove helpful as they seek grants for their work.
“This combination of imaging and analytical capabilities will give NC State and other NC university faculty almost an unfair competitive advantage as they compete for federal research funding,” said Dr. Dieter Griffis, director of the College of Engineering Analytical Instrumentation Facility (AIF) in the Monteith Engineering Research Center, where the new equipment is housed. “It also provides a similar advantage to North Carolina for recruiting and retaining high-tech industries.”
The AIF also recently obtained a piece of equipment that combines a high-resolution microscope with a focused ion beam, which allows researchers to cut and build materials at the nanoscale level (the head of a pin is about 1 million nanometers in diameter).
As with all the equipment at the AIF, the new technology will be available for use by researchers and industry throughout North Carolina. 