DIY Scanning Electron Microscope - Operation procedure

[xelionizer]

Truly impressive work! You seem to know alot about what you are doing;)

[death0intj]

pure nerd porn :)

[timerider4]

Very impressive.

[electrodacus]

I'm extremely impressed great job.

So the wire is about the same diameter as an average human hair.

You can get the same level of magnification with an optical microscope.

What is limiting the resolution?

[bkraz333]

@electrodacus This homebuilt SEM does not have very good resolution -- 5 micrometers perhaps. I am currently working on a slow-scan image buffer which will allow higher quality images, and potentially better resolution.

[Jonasinc1]

This is very neat. What would you have to do to get an image of bacteria or a virus with the microscope?

[bkraz333]

@Jonasinc1 It's unlikely that this homebuilt scope will ever have the resolution necessary to see a virus, and even bacteria might be a stretch. One problem is that biological samples must be carefully dried and coated with metal to be used in a SEM. I don't have the equipment to do that well, so I would be starting with low-quality samples and trying to image them with a low-resolution SEM. I'll probably eventually try it, though. Stay tuned!

[axel1973w]

Aint u producing a lot of XRAYS too?

[bkraz333]

@axel1973w Acceleration voltages below 10KV will produce x-rays of sufficiently long wavelength so that they are stopped by glass and aluminum. They are known as "soft x-rays". The higher the acceleration voltage, the shorter the wavelength, and the more penetrating the x-rays will be. Color TV sets need lead shielding because they operate at higher acceleration voltages than B/W TVs, which do not need shielding.

[axel1973w]

@bkraz333 excellent explanation. thanks

[rushymoto]

So, In your opinion, How viable is it to find a real microscope on the used market or to build one that can be of good use?

[bkraz333]

@rushymoto If you are planning to use the microscope for real analysis, I would recommend finding a used one. eBay always has a bunch in varying states of operability. You can also try contacting local universities or research labs. You may find one collecting dust that no one really wants. There are so few sales, it is difficult to say what a good price is.

[xelionizer]

You are one heck of an engineer! Really love your work on that SEM...!

You actually made this topic quite easy to understand!

Thanks again:D

[rhuedepo]

Wow, I'm impressed. Very cool.

[bejius]

This machine rocks !!!

BTW: Please help jeriellsworth fix the mass spectrometer.

[googacct]

The images keep looking better and better. I look forward to seeing more videos and construction details.

[oisiaa]

Absolutely amazing!

[jpfo1776]

Most interesting again. Any idea what the depth of field might be? I guess if you had a gold sprayed bug it could interesting and presume focus scale would enable you to cover full depth. I think you will have to try a fruit fly sometime!!!

[revolutiongames2004]

Have you considered making a scanning tunneling microscope?

[pieznice29]

Thats so cool, i need one...

[AgentDexter47]

i believe that the shakiness of the image can be reduced if the microscope itself is physically separated for the vacuum pumps - vibration of the pumps moves the sample and the image gets shaky

you probably watched it but i found a lot about electron microscopes in this video series

[AgentDexter47]

@AgentDexter47 "Scanning Electron Microscope: Pt 1 of 6 "

[nukwaste]

This is the absolute best DIY science on youtube. Keep up the good work. We are rooting for you.

[mechadrake]

That is very cool. Nice job.

[xXdenhartXx]

Have you tried your microscope on some bio-material?

[puddingpimp]

@xXdenhartXx From my understanding, bio-material is difficult to image, at least for back-scatter imaging, because you have to coat the material with a metallic coating.

[Olirap]

thorough, entertaining and imformative video. As always :D

[jeriellsworth]

I wish I had a chance to chat with you a bit more at maker faire.

[bkraz333]

@jeriellsworth Yeah, me too. I gather that you are not located in the SF Bay Area? (darn!)

[jeriellsworth]

@bkraz333 I get down there often. I'll try giving you a ping next time.

[DJelectfire]

This is so neat - is this completely homemade? - It sure looks like it!

[AntiProtonBoy]

You seriously need to digitise the capture for youtube consumption!

[bkraz333]

@AntiProtonBoy Yup, that's definitely the next step of the project. I've always wanted to play with FPGAs, and now is the perfect time to get started. I'll use the FPGA to control the raster generation along with signal capture, and the system should provide lots of flexibility with the best possible image resolution. Let me know if you have any helpful tips on where to get started with FPGAs.