Technology is dynamic. With every passing decade comes a novel concept, an idea that looks to play to the tunes of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. The ORION has proved this trend right! Traditional scanning electron microscopes (SEM) are finally finding their way out, paving the way for the new generation helium ion microscopes.
The ORION is the first commercial microscope developed for high magnification images that were earlier not possible with the SEMs. With Carl Zeiss lenses, the ORION marks the future of lab technology.
For more than 65 years, the SEMs had ruled the roost as they were the only viable design capable of offering high magnification and depth of focus. These microscopes were synonymous with imaging and analysis and quite rightly so, the creator of this wonderful tool - Ernst Ruska - was awarded the Nobel Prize.
Over the past decade or so, scientists have yearned for a change. There are two primary reasons attributed to the concern they had about the stagnation of technology. One - low mass electrons don’t behave entirely like particles. Their part wave nature caused diffraction and interference leading to ineffective beam focusing. Two - electron beams tend to scatter while hitting the sample object, thereby adulterating the information with other sources from the immediate neighbourhood of the sample. Consequently, the SEMs had an image resolution of just 2-5 nm.
With the ORION helium ion microscope, these concerns have been addressed successfully. Helium ions are 8000 times bigger than an electron, which means they don’t produce diffraction as readily and widely as electrons. The beams formed with He ions are as small as 0.25 nm, producing precision images. At the same time, the mass of He ions is lesser than other ion beams like Gallium or Argon. Hence, the scattering effect is also minimized. With accurate collimation, scientists can obtain excellent images at far better resolution than the SEM.
Via: Rdmag
