Hitachi Makes Significant Contribution To International Microscopy

Representatives from the Hitachi organization throughout the world will be reinforcing the company’s expertise in the field of electron optics by making a significant contribution to the 16th International Microscopy Congress (IMC16) to be held in Sapporo, Japan, 2-8 September 2006. Delegates from Hitachi will be giving two invited lectures within the Instrumentation & Techniques session as well as a further 14 presentations across many of the other disciplines. In addition Hitachi will be contributing 24 poster sessions.

The IMC is held every four years under the auspices of the International Federation of Societies for Microscopy (IFSM). IMC16 will be hosted by the Japanese Society of Microscopy and will highlight the progress being made in all kinds of microscopy in the 21st century as well as that of electron microscopy and will introduce the huge possibilities for nanostructure studies and analysis.

Hitachi’s invited paper topics are "New specimen methods for 3-D structural and elemental analyses" and "Electron holography". Other presentations cover subjects as diverse as triple-biprism interferometry, spin-polarised scanning electron microscopy and the development of a super-coherent bio phase transmission electron microscope. Applications areas include life sciences, materials science, semiconductors and nanotechnology.

To further complement the contribution to this prestigious meeting, Hitachi High-Technologies will be exhibiting the very latest electron microscopy products. These include the HD-2300 scanning transmission electron microscope equipped with spherical aberration correction for even better resolution and the new SU-70 large chamber analytical field emission scanning electron microscope. This features a unique dual mode objective lens and, with high probe current for super-fast analysis, provides a perfect balance between ultra-high resolution imaging and analysis in one instrument. The instrument will be shown with an EDX system from Oxford Instruments, WDX spectrometer and EBSD system mounted simultaneously.

Also on show will be the new S-3700N Variable Pressure scanning electron microscope (VPSEM). This new instrument has an analytical chamber capable of accepting samples up to 300mm across, and eleven accessory ports for analytical and experimental equipment use. The instrument has been designed for both imaging and analysis applications, ensuring excellent resolution capabilities at the analysis position. It will be shown equipped with a Bruker AXS EDX system featuring a liquid nitrogen-free silicon drift detector.

The exhibits are completed with two TM-1000 tabletop microscopes. This recently launched novel instrument gives a performance far in excess of an ordinary optical microscope, requires no special sample preparation for hydrated, oily or non-conducting samples, and is as easy to use as a digital camera. With 10x improvement in resolution and magnification range as well as 100x improvement in depth of field compared to conventional optical microscopes, this new instrument produces high quality images and bridges the gap between optical and electron microscopy.