[BNC-all] BNC e-news for the week of Dec. 8th

[Anthrop, Heather L]

Cleanroom
Equipment
Seminar

Cleanroom

Hotplates

A user reported that hotplate temperatures for their heated acetone processes have been significantly increased by an unknown person twice since July.  This  happened without the knowledge or approval of the person doing the heated acetone process.  Both times the samples were boiled off and ruined.  If this was a deliberate act of sabotage then this is a very serious offense with extreme consequences.  If perhaps someone set aside the acetone beakers for a quick use of the hotplate and did not return the hotplate to the original 70C process, then the samples were ruined by a careless act.  Dan Hosler is leading an effort to evaluate various engineering improvements that will provide better communication about the critical nature of the experiments underway.  In addition, our camera server hardware failed earlier in the summer.  Replacement required updating the OS and image collection software.  The OS has been installed and a new version of the image collection software is being purchased.  Cameras will be back online after the holiday break.

Equipment

FIB

Users have been frustrated with the uptime and availability of the Focused Ion Beam and the FIB manipulator.  Birck has a service contract with FEI, the manufacturer of the system, and Prof. Volkan Ortalan has written a very detailed letter to FEI service to express our displeasure with the state of the system and it's uptime.  In addition, Purdue purchasing has engaged in the discussion with FEI.  In response, FEI management has assured us that this is escalated to the highest levels in their company, and a Technical Support representative from FEI is being scheduled to service the FIB next week.

Seminar
Prof. J Colchero
Monday, December 8th at 4:00 pm
Birck 1001
Electrostatic Scanning Force Microscopy: Electric fields as powerful tools for nanoscale material characterization
For more information please visit: https://nanohub.org/groups/bnc/calendar/details/1092
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