New SEM Manual

Two PC works together in the system. On the table, the left screen correspond to computer 2 (used to handle files) and the right one correspond to computer 1 which is used to control SEM. There is a switch box between the screens, which enable us to controls which PC we are to control.

Starting

1. On computer 1, double click “XT microscope server”. 2. Right click the left corner of the newly started program and uncheck “tiny view”; wait until all the indicators on the right upper frame turns into green. Then click “start”, and check “tiny view”. 3. login 4. “Home stage” window pop up, click “yes” to bring the stage to “Home”. 5. At the lower right corner, we could check the status of the SEM. 6. Install sample, the middle of the stage is NOT a sample hole, but a screw. 7. close gate, pump, wait until the little cup shaped bar goes to green. We usually have vacuum 2.11e-4 torr. 8. Click the middle button (the middle wheel) in the camera screen and drag will bring the stage up and down.

9. change the magnification and do focus, do “link” by click on the toolbar

10. Increase the magnification to about 10000 and then do wobble. Click “Beam control”->”lens align”, we’ll see the beam is wobbling. Click the frame above the “lens aligns” button and draw to adjust until the image doesn’t move. When finished, click “lens Align” again. 11. Drag “stigmator” to do stigma. 12. Some tricks: a) Press F5 will switch between multi-frame and single-frame. b) Right click on the image frame will change the focus c) Shift + Right click will do the stigma d) Left click the image and drag will focus the selected area and increase the magnification e) F6 will do the auto contrast and Brightness. f) We can choose the scan mode “average/live/integrate” on the toolbar g) Scan->reduced area will do “reduced area” scan. h) F2 to grab a picture and save to “shared Data on ESEM Support PC”, the file type is normally “tif8” or tif 8bit. i) Stage->clamp will “clamp” the stage that is: prevent it from vibration; usually we don’t touch this feature. j) Tool->preference->edit label, we could add our own label into the picture. k) Videoscope on the toolbar reflect the scanning signal which could be changed by changing the contrast/brightness. l) Do measurement and even add any text into the picture in to toolbar of the up right corner. m) In the navigation panel, we could change the viewing location of our sample, we also could lock a certain direction, say x, y, or rotation angle. n) The so called “snapshot” is just a faster version of taking photo 13. shutting down a) beam off b) vent, before do this, turn on the nitrogen gas c) click “stop” of the server bar, NOT “shutdown” d) wait until the blue bar is off, right click the bar->exit XT microscope server.