services: Failure Analysis
Understanding failure mechanisms requires a complete treatment of the chemical, elemental, mechanical, and crystallographic state of materials and devices. Our center provides access to these disparate treatments in a unifying framework with a single access point, simplifying and reducing the time to an answer for critical industry leading systems.
RELEVANT TECHNIQUES:
SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY (SEM)
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) uses a focused electron probe to scan the surface of a sample. The electrons interact with the surface of the sample to produce a wide range of useful signals that can be used to provide high spatial resolution images, elemental composition, crystallographic information and more. Our instruments are capable of analyzing more traditional hard materials (metals, ceramics, etc.) as well as non-conductive or even hydrated samples by variable pressure/environmental SEM.
Our current range of SEM instruments can be found in our EPIC (SEM) Facility.
X-RAY DIFFRACTION (XRD)
X-ray diffraction (XRD) is a bulk measurement technique that can provide structural, chemical, and phase information of crystalline materials. By matching experimental data to spectral signatures, our instruments can be used to determine the identity of a variety of samples.
Our current range of XRD instruments can be found in our Jerome B. Cohen X-Ray Diffraction Facility and IMSERC Facility.
SCANNING PROBE MICROSCOPY (SPM)
SPM is the general umbrella technique for a suite of miroscopy tools that can provide everything from nanometer-scale surface images to local piezoelectric property measurements. By varying the type of probe and feedback mechanism, these tools can probe electrical, mechanical and magnetic properties from a range of different materials.
Our current range of SPM tools can be found inour SPID Facility.
MASS SPECTROMETRY
Mass Spectrometry measures the mass-to-charge ratio of ions from a sample, producing a mass spectrum to identify elemental or molecular species. This technique can be applied for a diverse set of research areas from pharmaceuticals to geology. Our tools can handle a range of samples and provide qualitative or quantitative analysis, with or without chromatographic separation.
Our current range of Mass Spectrometry tools can be found in the IMSERC Facility.
FOURIER TRANSFORM INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY (FTIR)
FTIR is a powerful and widely applicable vibrational spectroscopy technique to study chemical bonding and identify molecular structures. The technique can be applied to liquid, solid or gaseous samples and our facilities are also equipped with FTIR microscopy to analyze small specimens or areas of interest.
Our current range of FTIR tools can be found in our KECK-II Facility.