| Description |
62 leaves : illustrations ; 29 cm |
| Note |
Printout. |
| Thesis |
Thesis (M.S.)--Saint Joseph College, Connecticut, 2001. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (leaf 33). |
| Summary |
Scanning electron microscopy has gained acceptance as an effective tool for obtaining information. As the sensitivity to light elements has increased, so has the attention to the contamination on the windows of the energy dispersive spectrometers. Energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) is the most common technique used for microanalysis with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The EDS detector typically needs to be cooled to liquid nitrogen temperatures. The resulting low temperature of the detector can cause undesirable condensation of various contaminants onto the detector surface, which decreases detector sensitivity. In order to minimize the rate of condensation, it is necessary to characterize the nature of the condensate and identify possible sources of the condensate, so that they can be removed. It is hoped that by doing this, the rate of condensation will become so slow that detector sensitivity loss over time is not detectable. This research involves a case study in the characterization of organic contamination found on a Kevex Quantum EDS detector, which is integrated with a Hitachi S-400 scanning electron microscope. Using an infrared spectrometer and a liquid chromatograph coupled with a mass spectrometer, the contamination was found to originate from rubber vacuum hose. |
| Subject |
Scanning electron microscopy.
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Condensation.
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Spectrometer.
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