News

The new WITec Alpha 300 system with a 532-nm and a 785-nm lasers has been commissioned at the end of October. This system represents a significant upgrade over the Bruker Senterra system because it has better spectral resolution and, more importantly, true confocal capability that enables spectral depth profiling and high-speed mapping. There is also a time-resolved PL life-time measurement system that we believe would be helpful to some users. While we are learning a lot of these new features ourselves, we ask users who could take immediate advantage of these features to submit samples (to Joseph). Together with the Nexus G2 XPS system commissioned last year and the Auger microprobe that we manage to keep alive thus far as well as other tools (FTIR microscope, SIMS, PPMS and MPMS), WATLab continues to offer advanced spectromicroscopy analysis second to none in Canada. [Auger is important because it remains the only surface-sensitive elemental analysis technique capable of true nanoscale spatial resolution. Please see Lei for Auger work.] Despite a few setbacks triggered by unplanned power interruptions in C2, we have also managed to keep our entire SEM and AFM fleets operating close to specs.

Unlike before when we could easily update the content of our website, updating the new website requires us to learn this WCMS3 s/w as dictated by IST. This has unfortunately given us unnecessary extra work, as IST seems to be constantly moving to the next s/w (not unlike a moving target). We ask our users for their patience here. We have found that while the webform for sample submission is good in theory (perhaps in terms of getting website traffic statistics that we don’t need), we have very little control of it, making the response to the webform request slow and rather frustrating for the users. So, we request our users to contact Nina (nheinig@uwaterloo.ca) directly if there is an urgent sample request (to avoid delay).

Finally, we take this opportunity to wish all our users a happy Christmas and all the very best in the new year! Good data mining.

The WATLab website has been reworked to comply with web accessibility standards under Ontario law.  We are slowly learning the new WCMS 3 system and we ask our users to be patient with us as there will likely be some instability in this process.  Please report anything unusual to Nina.

WATLab has started the process of adding two new tools this year:  a micro XRF system and an advanced Raman confocal system.  Both will extend what we can currently do at WATLab.  The new XPS system and the upgraded SIMS system (installed in 2023) have been working well, and we welcome new samples.  We have also installed a new source in the Libra 200 MC TEM system, which has significantly improved the image quality.  WATLab looks forward to assisting all our users in need of these and other advanced tools at WATLab.

We have implemented a workaround (the CWL shutdown).  All the SEMs are back up and should be stable. 

The campus-wide chilled water loop (CWL) shutdown on Dec 6 and 7 is going to affect multiple systems at WATLab.  We are taking proactive measure to shutdown the affected systems before this CWL shutdown at 6 am tomorrow.  Plant Operations said that the CWL will be back on by Friday. We apologise for the inconvenience, and we take this opportunity to wish our users Happy Christmas and Wonderful New Year.

All systems are working well. WATLab will be upgrading our Raman system and will also be adding micro-XRF capability soon. 

There is an article from Physics World on WATLab.

Both the new ESCA system, Thermo NEXSA G2, and the extended dynamic range upgrade for the ION-TOF SIMS-5 system have been installed successfully.  We encourage all the users to consider taking advantage of these new generations of tools at WATLab for chemical-state surface composition analysis and depth-profiling chemical characterization as we strongly believe that these tools will enable our users to do better science.

The LEO SEM has suffered a leak in the V3 valve mechanism, which is used to isolate the important electron source region during sample loading. Before the V3 leak can be fixed, we have taken the LEO off-line and will only use it for special-need projects (such as those that require electroluminescence).  All the users certified for using the LEO will be moved to the ULTRA.  Please discuss this with Nina or Lei and they can create an user account on the ULTRA.  The LEO and ULTRA have the same SnartSEM user interface and certified LEO users will only need a quick training for using the sample transfer mechanism.  We thank you for your patience and co-operation.