The state-of-the-art equipment will be installed by the start of the fall 2011 semester and will be housed in MTSU’s Interdisciplinary Microanalysis and Imaging Center (MIMIC), which is located in Forrest Hall near the campus core. MIMIC opened in February 2007.

“The reason why both TESCAN and MTSU are so excited about this is because MTSU is the first U.S. customer for the FIB-SEM system,” said Dr. Ngee-Sing Chong, MTSU chemistry professor and MIMIC director.

“Imagine having a combination drill/milling device that is able to work on structures much smaller than a human hair,” explained Dr. Nathanael Smith, MTSU assistant professor in the physics and astronomy department. “That’s what a focused ion beam instrument can do—and more. The LYRA 3 FIB-SEM workstation will not only allow very small structures to be accurately machined, but with specialized, integrated detectors, it can also be used to analyze the structure and chemical composition of a host of sample types, from cross-sections of solar cells to biological specimens.” Smith added that the instrument will have 3-D imaging capabilities so that samples will be seen in newer and more powerful ways.

Applications for the new equipment could include observing the characterization of solar cells (physics); the fabrication of “photonic circuits,” where light is used in place of electricity (physics); and the development of nanomaterials for chemical analysis and catalytic acceleration of chemical reactions (chemistry). Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale."

The new equipment will enhance MIMIC as a training and research facility at MTSU, Chong noted.

“The microscopy instrumentation at MIMIC is accessible for research by all MTSU faculty and students,” he pointed out. “Primary users of the equipment come from biology, chemistry, physics, engineering technology, geology and anthropology. The facilities are also available for fee-based usage by microscopists from industries in the middle Tennessee region.”

“LYRA delivers ‘ease of use by design’ and is ideal for multi-user environments such as MIMIC, said Jeff Streger, vice president of Sales and Marketing at TESCAN USA Inc., located in Cranberry Twp., Penn. “We are very excited to have MTSU as a customer.”

TESCAN is a leading provider of scientific instrumentation. Established in 1991 and headquartered in the Czech Republic, TESCAN is an ISO certified company with a long tradition of excellence in scanning electron microscopy.