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The Zeiss Evo 60 is an environmental scanning electron microscope (EP-SEM).  In addition to the standard high vacuum (HV) operating mode the Evo 60 is capable of operating in extended pressure mode (EP).   While operating in extended pressure the Evo 60 is capable of viewing specimens that have not undergone the traditional drying and coating preparations.  Using small quantities of filtered air and water, the Evo 60 creates a non-destructive coating across the sample preventing charge from building.  The Evo 60 also comes equipped with a removable Hot/Cold stage. When used in combination with the EP mode, the Hot/Cold stage allows for wet samples to be viewed under the electron beam.

The resolving power of the SEM is 50nm and the machine is fitted with a LaB6 crystal filament. The LaB6 provides a brighter image with a higher resolution than commonly used Tungsten filaments. The chamber of the Evo 60 could comfortable fit a basketball under vacuum (38.5cm in diameter and 37.5 in height) and therefore larger samples can easily be accommodated.  This system also comes with a removable backscatter electron detector (BSD) in addition to the standard secondary electron detector (SE) used in HV and the variable pressure detector (VPSE) used in EP.  The BSD is sensitive to slight energy variations occurring when a high energy electron scatters off the nucleus of an atom.  This sensitivity allows the BSD to map out variations in the densities of the sample.

Also attached to the Evo 60 is a Bruker AXS Quantax 4010 Energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS).  The EDS detector measures X-rays given off by sample as it is excited by the electron beam.  Utilizing this data the Bruker software is capable of graphing the elemental make up of the sample, as well as creating a map of the image highlighting where selected elements appear.  The Quantax 4010 is equipped with a Silicon Drift Detector (SDD) which can provide a high resolution and accurate map and/or graph of the sample in approximately an hour. Position tagged spectrometry allows for point specific analysis of all elements from atomic number 4 (beryllium) up to 95 (americium) contained in the sample to be detected and analyzed simultaneously.