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Waterloo Advanced Technology
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Visitor Info Contact us at: manager or director | Download the WATLab Primer |
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What's NeXT
Samples for OS service should be submitted in campus-mail envelopes so that we could return them after the analysis by campus-mail.
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July 2022 - Clean room protocol remains in place
While Waterloo has no
longer mandated masks indoor, we observe that the clean-room protocol
(mask up, gloves on, 2-m apart) has greatly improved the data quality of
the measurement. Masks and gloves help to minimize dust and/or
moisture transfer to the sample while handling or mounting the sample.
They also keep the machine console area, particularly the keyboard and
mouse, clean. As such, WATLab will maintain the clean-room
protocol until further notice. We thank our users for their
cooperation.
13 May 2022 - User samples overflowing There appears to be a large number of unclaimed samples on the blue cart (after the measurement). Please pick these samples up as soon as possible as this is creating a health and safety concern. We thank our users for their kind co-operation.
18 March 2022 - WATLab switching to clean room protocol: As the COVID restrictions are being lifted in Ontario, we are switching to a new clean-room protocol at WATLab, which we found in the past two years has actually improved the cleanliness of our machines and our users' samples, resulting in better images and better quality data for the users.
We thank our users for their support and patience in keeping WATLab from any COVID outbreak in the past two years. We ask for their continued cooperation and for their kindness and respect in treating fellow WATLab users.
Mandatory Clean-Room Protocol Mask up, gloves on, and stay 2 m apart - at all times in WATLab.
18 January 2022 - In-person restart on January 24: We will restart in-person operation for the Ultra and Quanta on January 24. The LEO will be on hold for a bit longer to see how the restart goes - please contact Nina if the LEO is needed. All other services will be provided via remote OS. In-person training will remain suspended. As the COVID caseload has not really come down, we ask all our users to take extra care both on campus and off, to follow the safety protocols, and to minimize human interaction as much as possible while on site.
Mandatory Safety Protocol 1. Mask up, gloves on, and stay 2 m apart - at all times in WATLab. 2. Avoid high-risk situations two weeks before the machine reservation time: Do not attend any big gathering (with more than 10 people) or party or high risk places. If the user has close contact with a potential carrier (i.e. less than 2 m for more than 15 minutes), then we would ask the user to self-quarantine for 14 days before coming in contact with the WATLab bubble. 3. Upon arrival at WATLab, please fill out the hardcopy Wellness Survey form. Please provide the log-in and log-out dates and times to facilitate contact tracing. 4. Follow the check-in and check-out procedures, and observe all the safety rules. Only one user per machine is allowed and so please do not bring anyone else. WATlab will continue to maintain a low/safe lab occupancy limit for each space.
5 January 2022 - In-person restart to be delayed until at least January 24: With the hospitalization rate rising rapidly now in the ROW and evidently widespread Omicron community transmission among asymptomatic individuals, WATLab is implementing a circuit-breaker delay of resuming in-person operation until January 24. We thank our users for their patience and understanding, and we hope that our users could use the Remote OS to get their data in the meantime.
3 January 2022 - Delaying in-person restart: As the Omicron-driven fifth wave is overpowering the local population, WATLab will delay resuming in-person operation until January 10 to allow time for our users to stabilize their life with Omicron after the long break. (Remote OS will start on January 4.) The best defense remains to be 2 m distancing with a good mask on, and we strongly encourage our users to avoid crowds and to double mask whenever possible. WATLab will also suspend all in-person training until further notice. We wish our users to take extra care during possibly the most dangerous time of the pandemic as we welcome the New Year (of the Water Tiger) with optimism and good tidings of luck and prosperity.
17 December 2021 - Omicron-driven fifth wave: As we are entering the Omicron-driven fifth wave, we urge once more our users to take extra care on site and off. While our users are getting in line for their third doses, the only remaining reliable defense is 2-m distancing with a good mask on. We are encouraging our users to consider double-masking, as the structural integrity of the commonly used cloth mask will degrade after each wash and the pore size becomes larger and larger allowing the 100-nm virus to easily get through. A good mask is one with multiple layers (at least 5+ layers), which can be easily achieved if we just insert a folded piece of Kleenex between the nose and the mask. One can verify the effectiveness of any mask setup with a simple candle test.
WATLab will be closed for the holidays on Wednesday (Dec 22) at noon and reopened on January 4 (Tuesday). We take this opportunity to wish our users a happy and healthy holiday break, and a prosperous new year.
How to become a certified SEM user? Please follow the FAQ link above or here for more details. Please contact Nina to arrange for SEM training and certification.
Why we don't need a lot of sample for SEM analysis? To our users with powder samples, we wish to remind them that one does not really need tons of samples to do SEM. Powders should be uniformly spread over a 1 mm x 1 mm area (in a layer a few microns thick) and attached securely onto the carbon tape. We definitely do not need powders spreading over an area larger than 1 mm x 1 mm and/or in a layer thicker than 10 microns. Here, we should remember: LESS is MORE, b/c: (a) A finely focussed electron beam (<10 nm dia.) hitting any sample (especially the "gassy" ones) at high energy will cause local heating/interaction that leads to rapid gas desorption, which will cause the filament (sitting at the EHT voltage) to arc (the filament will not survive above 5x10-9 mB). Field-emission filament will not be able to handle a lot of arcings like that, which will shorten its lifetime significantly. So, the less samples that one uses, the more stable is the machine. (b) Powder samples that are too thick (or not securely attached to the carbon tape) will also lead to partial charging. This is b/c the electron beam typically penetrates a few microns, creating secondary electrons that are finding their way to the carbon tape. If the sample is too thick, these secondary electrons stay inside the bulk and the sample will charge up, leading to bad images. (c) More samples in the chamber will lead to a poorer vacuum, and it will take a longer time to pump the system down to the acceptable operating vacuum condition. Less gas in the chamber and less gas desorption from the sample (as induced by the high-energy electron impact) will also improve image quality.
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TOOLSET & SERVICE
We offer pay-per-use service for both academic and industrial users at competitive rates, with our expert operators providing sample characterization measurement (and analysis). For a selected number of tools (e.g. SEM), we also provide training to allow the users to access the tools through a self-serve booking system. To submit samples for analysis, please fill in Form A above, and contact the respective technical specialists. For all other enquiries and guided lab tours, please contact manager . |
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KNOWLEDGE BASE Inside look at LEO chamber | CORE RESEARCH aT WATLAB Research news to come... |
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September 2022 - Clean-room protocol remains in place:
Established
with funding support from Canada Foundation for Innovation and the
Province of Ontario in 1999, WATLab is the first multidisciplinary
materials research centre in Canada's Technology Triangle. WATLab
offers a complete toolset for advanced materials research and
emerging technology development. Most of our instrument systems are
state-of-the-art and some are unique in Canada, and they include:
OUTREACH