Scanning Electron Microscopes

And the winner is …. or at least, the person that guessed closest is to what was scanned by our scanning electron microscope is …
AMANDA!
She guessed Taffey!
Great guess Amanda, it’s actually a starburst fruit chew. Congrats Amanda! You’ll be contacted directly and we’ll send you your USB stick and giftcard within the next few days!

It’s week 2 of “NAME THAT SAMPLE!”

Week 1 was pretty fun … we had some great guesses (and some not so great ones) … but all guesses/entries are encouraged.

This one is definitely a hard one. Whoever guesses correctly first will win a 1GB ASPEX USB STICK. (winner will be contacted via email) AND a $50 Giftcard to Amazon.com (we’re upping the stakes on this one since no oone has guessed correctly in over a week.)

Just comment below with your guess! The contest was supposed to end on Friday, but since no one has guessed correctly, we’re going to let it run for a few more days ..

UPDATE: December 19, 2009 – Noone has guessed correctly. A few people have come pretty close though. Let the guesses keep coming in!

UPDATE: December 22, 2009 – WE HAVE A WINNER! or someone that has answered pretty close … we will announce it later today! Our next NAME THAT SAMPLE campaign will start TONIGHT!

Interested in sending in an item to get scanned by one of our SEM’s? Just Send Us Your Sample!

System Configuration
Product: PSEM® eXpress
Operating Parameters: VP–BSED Detector,
Accelerating Voltage 20.0 kV,
Working Distance 14.4 mm
Reporting Software: Personal Image Print™

And the winner is … SAM!

He guessed correctly … it was a “Post It Note”

Congrats SAM! You’ll be contacted for your address so that we can send you your ASPEX USB stick! Below were the details for the Name that Sample contest, Week 1! Stay tuned for Week 2 coming up! Do you have a sample that you’d like to see on the name that sample contest? Go ahead and Send Us Your Sample Today!

Hello everyone. Because of the huge success we’ve had with our “Send Us Your Sample” campaign … we’re asking everyone to help us NAME THAT SAMPLE!

Whomever guesses whats under our Scanning Electron Microscopes correctly first will win a 1GB ASPEX USB STICK. (winner will be contacted via email).

Just comment below with your guess! The contest will end Friday at 11:59PM EST.

Application Introduction
Variable Pressure (VP) facilitates the analysis of non-conductive specimens with SEM instrumentation. Our products employ the Backscattered Electron Detector (BSED) during this analysis mode.

Data Illustrations & Method Description
BSED imaging reflects the elemental surface composition in shades of gray. Carbonaceous phases would be represented in darker tones where as Metallic features would be displayed in brighter tones.

Interested in resolving or illustrating surface features, elemental composition and or an unknown defect? Just Send Us Your Sample!

System Configuration
Product: PSEM® eXpress
Operating Parameters: VP–BSED Detector,
Accelerating Voltage 20.0 kV,
Working Distance 14.4 mm
Reporting Software: Personal Image Print™

ASPEX is the world’s only SEM Elemental Analysis company that allows anyone to send in their sample to get scanned by our SEM. Ever wondered what something looks like under a scanning electron microscope? You’ve got to see it to believe it.

Here are the instructions. You can find the form by clicking here.

Here’s what a toy bunny looks like under an SEM!

Learn more about this incredible send us your sample campaign!

Here’s a pic of our latest batch of samples … they just keep on comin’






As you can see, we’re working hard getting through all of your samples.





Also, want a free ASPEX envelope opener? Just fill out the form below!

The kind folks over at Chemistry-Blog.com sent over a stir rod to get scanned under our Scanning Electron Microscopes.

We’ve made a report for you guys, so, here goes:

Stir Rod Analysis
Analysis and reports by:
Ben Abraham, Analyst
babraham@aspexcorp.com

This is what was sent in to us …

SEM parameters used during an analysis:
Instrument: ASPEX eXplorer
Beam Current: 20 KeV
Spot Size: 40%
Working distance: 16.0 mm
Variable Pressure: 0.30 torr
Detector: BSED

Instrument and Software
The Stir Rod was analyzed using the ASPEX PSEM. Chemical composition data was
acquired using a SDD detector with a 30 mmsq- Ultra Thin Window SDD detector.
Reports were prepared using ASPEX imaging reporter.

Testing performed
Backscatter electron detector (BSED) images were collected under variable pressure
conditions (VP set point is 0.3 torr).

Image 1: Image from BSED detector. EDS performed on a particle on the surface.

Image 2: Image from BSED detector. EDS performed on a particle on the surface.

Image 3: Image from BSED detector. EDS performed on a particle on the surface.

Image 4: Image from BSED detector. EDS performed on a particle on the surface.

Image 5: Image from BSED detector. EDS performed on a particle on the surface.

Image 6: Image from BSED detector. EDS performed on a particle on the surface.