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Decontamination in the Electron Probe Microanalysis with a Peltier-Cooled Cold Finger

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2016

Ben Buse ,
Stuart Kearns ,
Charles Clapham  and
Donovan Hawley
Ben Buse*
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1RJ, UK
Stuart Kearns
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1RJ, UK
Charles Clapham
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1RJ, UK
Donovan Hawley
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, BS8 1RJ, UK
*
*Corresponding author.[email protected]
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Abstract

A prototype Peltier thermoelectric cooling unit has been constructed to cool a cold finger on an electron microprobe. The Peltier unit was tested at 15 and 96 W, achieving cold finger temperatures of −10 and −27°C, respectively. The Peltier unit did not adversely affect the analytical stability of the instrument. Heat conduction between the Peltier unit mounted outside the vacuum and the cold finger was found to be very efficient. Under Peltier cooling, the vacuum improvement associated with water vapor deposition was not achieved; this has the advantage of avoiding severe degradation of the vacuum observed when warming up a cold finger from liquid nitrogen (LN2) temperatures. Carbon contamination rates were reduced as cooling commenced; by −27°C contamination rates were found to be comparable with LN2-cooled devices. Peltier cooling, therefore, provides a viable alternative to LN2-cooled cold fingers, with few of their associated disadvantages.

Keywords

electron probe microanalysisanticontaminationPeltier coolingcold fingercarbon contamination
Type
Instrumentation and Techniques Development
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 22 , Issue 5 , October 2016 , pp. 981 - 986
Copyright
© Microscopy Society of America 2016 

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