Eyring Materials Center techniques
The Eyring Materials Center offers a variety of techniques to meet your research needs. Learn more about individual techniques and their associated equipment below.
Electron microscopy
Electron microscopy is a scientific imaging technique used to capture high-resolution images of specimens such as microorganisms, large molecules, metals and crystals. For example, EM is often used in biomedical research to study the detailed structure of cells, tissues and organelles. The technique works by focusing a beam of electrons onto a sample using magnetic lenses. Using electrons as the source of illumination results in a very high resolution — up to ~0.1 nanometers (nm) — because of the electrons’ very short wavelength.
Electron microscopes use a beam of electrons to produce an image, while light (or optical) microscopes use a beam of light. Electron microscopes can capture images at a higher resolution than light microscopes. This makes electron microscopy better suited for studying samples with features smaller than 200 nm. Light microscopes have an image resolution of about 200 nm, compared to a typical resolution in the 10 to ~0.1 nm range for EM, depending on the technique and instrument.
There are different types of electron microscopes, which produce different types of images. These include scanning electron microscopes (SEM), transmission electron microscopes (TEM) and aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopes (ACTEM). Most modern TEMs and ACTEMs can also be operated in a scanning mode: scanning transmission electron microscopes (STEM).
Learn more about electron microscopy techniques and applications.
Chemical composition analysis techniques
The Goldwater and METAL facilities offer the following techniques:
What is the right chemical composition analysis technique for my sample? (PDF)
Other EMC analytical techniques
Optical spectroscopy uses light in the UV, visible or infrared wavelength to determine physical, chemical or structural properties of materials. The techniques work on a wide range of materials including gases, liquids and solids.
Our facility includes the following instruments:
- Ellipsometer (M2000)
- FT-IR – PerkinElmer Frontier
- FT-IR – Nicolet iS50 with RaptIR microscope
- Micro-Raman Spectrometer
- Raman / AFM (Witec Alpha 300 RA+)
- UV-Vis Spectrometers (Perkin Lambda 950)
Surface analysis by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)
- X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (Kratos Axis Supra +).
The center has several tools to image surfaces in addition to the electron microscopy techniques. Scanning-probe instruments use a small tip to determine surface topography and other information on the nanometer lateral scale for very flat surfaces. Stylus profilometry scans a multi-micron-size diamond tip across a surface to measure topography. Optical profilometry uses white-light interferometry to generate a 3D picture of a surface in a few seconds.
- Optical Profilometer (ZeScope)
- Stylus Profilometer (Bruker Dektak XT)
- Scanning Probe/ Atomic force Microscopy (SPM/AFM)
- Raman / AFM (Witec Alpha 300 RA+)
- X-ray topography (Rigaku XRT-100)
X-ray diffraction is typically used for phase identification and composition, crystal structure, crystal quality, orientation, strain state, crystal chemistry and defect density, surface quality, film thickness and sample texture. The typical samples are thin films (both single crystal and polycrystalline) as well as powders.
- High Resolution X-ray diffractometer – Rigaku SmartLab
- Powder X-ray Diffractometer – Aeris (PANalytical)
- Transmission X-ray diffractometer (STOE)
- Xeuss 3.0 SAXS/WAXS (Xenocs)
- X-ray topography (Rigaku XRT-100)
X-ray fluorescence is a technique used to determine the bulk composition of solid and liquid materials.
- Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (Bruker S2 PUMA)
Materials synthesis/processing
Large volume presses, including multi-anvils, and auxiliary tools to synthesize samples at pressures greater than 20 GPa and temperatures greater than 2,000°C are available.
The multi-anvil laboratory has specialized equipment for treating a variety of samples under high pressure and temperature. For many chemical compounds, this pressure treatment creates unique, dense forms that are otherwise unattainable. The best-known application of simultaneous high pressure and temperature is in the production of synthetic diamonds.
In our laboratory, we can make diamonds, but we can also reach pressures up to five times higher than the pressure that is normally used to make diamonds. With this capability, we can perform a wide variety of novel research using high pressures. Many of the experiments we perform in our three multi-anvil presses are “cook and look.” In other words, we subject samples to high pressure and temperature, but we can examine them only after the pressure is released.
Typical methods used to examine high-pressure products include x-ray diffraction, electron probe microanalysis and transmission electron microscopy. Typical sample sizes are in the millimeter range. We also have equipment for measuring electrical conductivity and impedance on samples while they are subjected to high pressure and temperature.
- Multi-anvil press
- FORCE
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