Take Advantage Of Used Scanning Electron Microscope – Read These 10 Tips

If you are an Analytical Chemist, Geologist, Forensic Team Expert, Microchip producer, Electronic Service analyst, Biologist, or any other industry that requires study of the structural behavior of solids, Scanning Electron Microscopes are your go-to destination.

Electron microscopes come at very high costs. For example,

• To install a fully functional Scanning Microscope, you may require around $80,000 to $2,000,000, including the cost of monitors and a well-accustomed room,
• And, to install a used Transmission Electron Microscope for sale, you need to shell out around $3,000,000 to $10,000,000.

You will need other analyzing tools apart from these scanning and transmission electron microscopes, and buying them all out is a terrible idea. So, you can just use the following tips so that both your purpose of analysis of the samples is done, and you don’t even have to get a brand-new set of every tool:

1. Understand how the Scanning Electron Microscopes work:

In the Scanning Electron Microscope, we monitor the scattered electrons, and electrons that are scattered from different levels of its surface are scanned to get a high-resolution 3D image of the surface of the sample. The Scanning Microscope enables us to dig deeper into the following:

• Topography,
• Morphology, and the,
• Chemical composition of the elements in only the surface area of the sample.

2. Understanding how the Transmission Electron Microscopes work:

In most of your analysis, you will need both SEM and the TEM, to understand your sample’s molecular and atomic level framework properly. A Transmission Electron microscope uses the transmitted electrons from the samples to get a 2D and higher resolution image of the sample atoms. So, naturally, it can provide you more atomic level info of the sample such as:

• The type of Crystal Structure,
• The atomic morphology, and
• The stress-state information of the atoms. 

3. Why use an electron microscope and spend so much when we have a readily available Optical Microscope?

Here is data that might help you to clear the above hesitancy; 

• An ordinary optical microscope has a 1000X magnifying power,
• A Scanning Electron microscope has a 50,000X magnifying power, whereas,
• A used Transmission Electron Microscope for sale has a 2,000,000X magnifying power.

4. Why should you take advantage of a Used Scanning Electron Microscope?

It is best to use an already-used Scanning or Transmission electron microscope. You can easily do this if you get to know a nearby chemical analysis lab or maybe a university lab that already has all the analytical tools in place. 

5. Outline of the set-up of a used Scanning Electron Microscope:

A standard and fully equipped used SEM has the following five instrumentation criteria that you will see:

• An electron source or electron gun,
• 2 electron lenses,
• Electron beam Scanning coil,
• Detectors to collect the scattered electrons,
• And a monitor.

6. The infrastructure requirements of a fully equipped SEM is even huge:

The room in which you will be visiting to perform SEM experiments is:

• Connected with a proper voltage power supply. SEM instruments need 0V to 15kV of acceleration power supply and 5V of filament power supply,
• The full instrumentation of the SEM chamber in which the electron beam is bombarded into the sample must be a vacuum,
• A proper cooling system for the filament, 
• A vibration-free room, and
• An electronic and magnetic interference-free environment,

7. Ease of using a used SEM:

The actual usage of an SEM instrument is very light, as the sample preparation is not hectic. If the sample is electrically conductive, then you just put it on the sample holder properly, and you will get the 3D image.

8. Understanding the type of detectors that are used in SEM and TEM:

The following types of signals are generated due to the interaction of the electron beams and the sample electrons:

• Secondary electrons (SE),
• Backscattered Electrons (BSE),
• Auger electrons (AE),
• Continuum X-rays,
• Characteristic X-rays,
• Cathodoluminescence,
• Fluorescent X-rays,
• Transmitted electrons,
• Diffracted electrons, and
• Scattered electrons.

So, it would help if you got a detector for each, which you can get quickly in a used Scanning Electron Microscope set-up.

9. It is time-saving to use a used SEM:

Naturally, if you go for a used electron microscope for sale, you don’t need to worry about its maintenance and set-up costs.

10. Used SEM for sale:

There are many dealers from whom you can get a used electron microscope for sale. It costs much lower. You can visit the Lab site for more information.

As you saw, it is a better idea to use a pre-owned SEM than to go for a whole new set-up. So, with the above ten points and your analysis requirements, you should be able to decide for yourself the better choice. Hopefully, the article helps in making the most out of the Scanning Electron Microscope and its functioning process.