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Engineering, the Senior Vice President and Provost, and
the Senior Vice President for Business and Finance all
contributed to the funding of the FIB and the STEM.
“We are reviewing capabilities of the various manufactures
and developing required specifications in preparation for
placing an order,” Kramer said.
Once the order is placed for the three new pieces of
equipment, the work of moving the existing Tecnai TEM
and the supporting sample preparation equipment will
be scheduled so as to minimize the down time for current
microscopy work. Once the new facility is operational, the
other two existing scanning electron microscopes and an
older TEM, now obsolete, will be removed and the lab space
in Wilhelm Hall reclaimed for other purposes.
Construction of the SIF is wrapping up, however at this
point, only four of the six instrument bays are being finished
and will house the equipment listed earlier. The remaining
space will be allocated based on equipment needs and
compatibility that allows the best utilization of that space. A
multi-stage commissioning process will take place to insure
that the building and its electrical and mechanical systems
perform according to specifications before the Lab takes
ownership.
“Scheduling could be a bit of a dance to make sure that all
of our ISU partners who have funded the equipment get their
appropriate access,” Kramer said. “I anticipate that it will be
in use 24/7. The facility is our space to manage and users will
be brought on as Ames Lab associates with all the requisite
training in terms of safety, policies and procedures, and how
to operate the equipment.”
“One benefit of the new equipment is that it allows one to
observe the operation of, and even operate, the instruments
remotely,” he continued. “I’m considering setting up a location
on campus where samples could be dropped off. Researchers
would book time on the equipment, their sample would be
loaded and then control of the equipment would be handed
off to them remotely. They could perform their scans without
setting foot in the SIF.”
“Obviously, we have a lot of details to work out,” Kramer
said, “but this facility will provide a significant boost to the
characterization capabilities at both Ames Laboratory and
Iowa State University.”
ears of planning will soon come to fruition
when the Sensitive Instrument Facility (SIF) opens
its doors later this year. The $10 million state-of-the-
art building, Ames Laboratory’s first new research
facility in more than 50 years, will house a new
array of electron microscopes that will provide
researchers an unprecedented close-up look at
materials at the atomic level.
“Everything is coming together,” said Matt Kramer,
Materials Sciences and Engineering Division Director at
Ames Laboratory. “We’ve been able to pull together the
necessary funding through partnerships with Iowa State
University and the Department of Energy to equip the SIF
with what we need to take our research capabilities to the
next level.”
In addition to an existing transmission electron microscope
that will be moved to the new facility and upgraded with
newer software and detectors, three additional pieces of
equipment will be purchased. Using DMSE equipment
funds and an FY14 midyear equipment addition from DOE,
Ames Laboratory will purchase a field-emission scanning
electron microscope (FE-SEM) for roughly $800,000.
The other two pieces—a focused ion beam microscope,
known as a FIB ($1.7 million) and an aberration-corrected
scanning transmission electron microscope or STEM ($3.5
million)—are now funded as well. DOE allocated funds to
helppurchase theFIB.Acoalitionof IowaState’sDepartments
of Materials Science and Engineering, Chemical and
Biological Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry,
and Physics, the Deans of Liberal Arts and Sciences and
This facility will provide
a significant boost to
the characterization
capabilities at both
Ames Laboratory
and
Iowa State University
.
Nearing Operational Status
SIF
Top:
The new Sensitive Instrument Facility sits near the
existing Applied Science II building in the background.
Right:
Interior view of one of the office spaces.
B Y K E R R Y G I B S O N