Scanning Electron Microscopy Blog

A bit of fun from the folks at ASPEX. They make small scale SEMs and have recently been running a "Send us your sample" promotion where potential customers send in samples and get a free image taken using one of the ASPEX microscopes.

From ASPEX:

"Starting this week, ASPEX is running a "Name That Sample" contest. We have posted a couple of desktop SEM scans of an object and we're looking for people to guess what object was scanned. The first person to leave a comment with the correct answer will win a 1GB ASPEX USB stick. This week's contest will end Friday at 11:59PM EST, so get your guesses in by then! The winner will be notified by email.

There will be more mystery samples to come and prizes to be won if you miss this week's deadline."

Sounds like a bit of fun to me on the day before Thanksgiving...

Posted by bbandli at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Two articles in the recently renovated Microscopy Today are worth your time to read.

First is application of SEM/EDS to archaeology on Page 28. It presents two case studies where ancient paints are analyzed using SEM and EDS. The second case study has an interesting observation on using the ratio of Pb M(beta) to Pb M(gamma) x-ray lines to possibly discriminate lead oxides from lead carbonates (which is kind of a big deal).

Second is an overview of how beam deceleration is used to improve low accelerating voltage imaging in non-FE SEMs.

Posted by bbandli at 1:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)