News Archive
2008
Minister Launches the commemorative symposium 'Excellence in Microscopy'
03 December 2008, Sydney
Minister for Science and Medical Research Jodi McKay today congratulated the University of Sydney's Electron Microscope Unit (EMU) on its 50th year of operations.
Speaking at the launch of an Excellence in Microscopy symposium to mark the 'Golden Jubilee' anniversary, Ms McKay said the EMU has made major contributions to research, education and innovation over its half century.
Download the Minister's press release (PDF 32 KB)
|
|
 |
At the official opening of 'Excellence in Microscopy': (from left) Prof. Simon Ringer, The Hon. Jodi McKay MP, Prof. Merlin Crossley, and Dr Julie Cairney.
|
2007
Minister Launches the Australian Microscopy & Microanalysis Research Facility
27 September 2007, Sydney
The Australian Microscopy & Microanalysis Research Facility (AMMRF), a $41 million national research facility to provide cutting-edge microscopy and microanalysis capability to all Australian researchers, was launched by the Federal Minister for Education, Science and Training, the Hon Julie Bishop MP, at the University of Sydney today.
Read full article on AMMRF website
|
|
|
Celebrating a milestone: The Federal Minister for Education, Science and Training, the Hon Julie Bishop MP, with Prof. Simon Ringer (left) and Dr Greg Smith, Chairman of the AMMRF (right), at the Official Launch of the facility in September 2007.
|
New TEM Facilities Upgrades
|
October 2007 Another addition to the JEOL 3000F is a new cooling strain holder, purchased in collaboration with Dr Xiaozhou Liao from the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering. This new holder, also from Gatan, will open up many exciting possibilities in materials research like deformation mechanisms in metal or polymers, or strain induced diffusion etc., while keeping the specimen cooled at temperatures as low as -170°C. Last but not least, our CM120 Biofilter TEM has just received an upgrade of its GIF operating system, which is now based on a PC. This results in dramatically improved functionality and usability of this system. For more information please contact Shaun Bulcock. |
|
 |
New NSOM Arrived
July 2007
A Ntegra near-field scanning optical microscope (NSOM) has been installed at the EMU, and is now available for booking.
NSOM is a scanned probe technique in which a very small light source is scanned very close to a sample’s surface. Light photons pass through a sub-wavelength-diameter aperture, by quantum effects, and illuminate a nearby sample; for this technique to work, the probe must be placed within the near-field region of the surface, which is a distance much less than the wavelength of light. By the use of the sub-wavelength aperture in the near-field region, the achievable resolution is far better than the one attainable in conventional optical microscopes, which is limited by the wavelength of light. The NSOM method is particularly useful to nanotechnologists, such as physicists, materials scientists, chemists and biologists, who require ultra-high resolution and spatial information from a broad range of materials.
This NSOM combines the high topographic resolution of techniques such as AFM with the significant temporal resolution, polarisation characteristics, spectroscopic capabilities, sensitivity, and flexibility inherent in many forms of optical microscopy. But the real power of this technique is, that the two separate data sets – optical and topographical – can be compared to determine the correlation between the physical structures and the optical contrast of the specimen.
For more information please contact .