The service provides fundamental tools for the observation and analysis of microorganisms or their microstructures. Advice and permanent technical support by the service staff facilitates the scientific tasks.
The service is open to a wide scientific community, including the ICM and other CSIC centers, public research organizations and private companies.
Calibration of the scanning electron microscope is performed regularly. Calibration standards certified by the National Institute of Standards (NIST) of USA and the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in the United Kingdom, which meet the ISO-9000, are available.
An annual review by the Hitachi official technical staff (ISO-9001) is performed to certify proper operation.
Service benefits on request and availability.
- Scanning Electron Microscope FE-SEM HITACHI SU8600, with transmission capability (STEM), equipped with two secondary electron detectors and two backscattered electron detectors located in the column and in the chamber, and 2 energy dispersive X-ray spectrometers (EDS) BRUKER QUANTAX G7 XFlash 730 SDD with 30 mm2 active area and 123 eV energy resolution. Grant EQC2021-007134-P funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR.
- Scanning Electron Microscope HITACHI S-3500N, a variable pressure SEM (VPSEM) equipped with backscattered and secondary electron detectors, a specific secondary electron detector to work in variable pressure mode, an energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) BRUKER QUANTAX 200 XFlash 6/30 SDD detector with 30 mm2 active area and 123 eV energy resolution, and a Cryo-SEM QUORUM PP3000T for studying cryofixed samples.
- Critical Point Dryer LEICA EM CPD300.
- QUORUM Q150R S sputter coater (Au).
- QUORUM 150T ES Plus sputter coater (Cr)/turbo evaporator(C).
- ZONE SEM II, UV sample cleaner.
- 8 Optical Microscopes (OLYMPUS- BX40F4, OLYMPUS-BX61, LEITZ-DM IL, 2 NIKON-DIAPHOT-200, ZEISS-AXIOVERT, LEICA-DM IRB S8F, ZEISS-Colibri), most equipped with epifluorescence, and 5 OLYMPUS magnifiers. Some microscopes and magnifiers are connected to different image analysis systems.
- LEICA HistoCore AUTOCUT microtome.
Contact: sem@icm.csic.es