Do not handle specimen stubs
with your bare fingers.
Contaminates from your fingers
will volatilize in the high
vacuum and contaminate the
final beam aperture and
detectors which in turn will
significantly degrade the image.
The “X” and “Y” controls are approximately centered at 500 X 500 with TILT
at 0 degrees.
Do not adjust the TILT less than 0 degrees nor greater than 90 degrees.
Turning ON the electron beam:
Turn ON the high tension. There should be a “blip” in the filament current
gauge. Adjust the current to saturation (usually 5-6 clicks).
Do not over-
saturate the filament
.
Aligning the electron gun (if necessary):
With a spot size of 500 and minimum magnification, turn up the filament
current until the current no longer rises on the gauge. Adjust the detector
gain to provide a circular illumination. Center this circle on the screen
using the “gun shift” then use the “gun tilt” controls to give the brightest
illumination.
Changing or inserting a new specimen:
Be sure the filament current and high tension is off and the filament has
cooled for at least 1 minute.
Press the OFF button on the vacuum control panel.
Press the air button.
Wait for the specimen chamber door to release and then carefully pull the
stage assembly out.
Use the 1.5 mm Allen wrench to secure
the specimen stub to the holder. Do not
over-tighten the set screw. It only needs
to be firm.
Push the stage assembly into the
chamber being
absolutely
sure that t h e
specimen will not hit the EDAX detector.
