Idaho State University created the Center for Archaeology, Materials, and Applied Spectroscopy (CAMAS), an interdisciplinary research facility dedicated to the integration of social, natural, and physical analytical sciences. Critical to the success of this center, and an important need for Idaho State University, is access to an environmental scanning electron microscope (SEM) for research and student training. This award will allow the acquisition of a scanning electron microscope with scanning transmission microscopy, energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry capability, wavelength dispersive X-ray spectroscopy capability, and cathodoluminescence imaging capabilities (SEM/STEM/EDS/WDS/CL). The proposed SEM will be a significant research tool in archaeology, geology, biology, materials science, and related fields. ISU is a growing research institution that currently has limited or no opportunities for research or education in modern scanning electron microscopy. Researchers and students interested in elemental analysis, materials analysis, structural analysis, and the gamut of analyses currently critical to the advancement of research in a suite of disciplines including archaeology, the earth sciences, ecology, and chemistry will now be able to conduct advanced SEM research at Idaho State University.
Non-destructive analysis techniques are critical to the development of modern archaeological and physical sciences. The capabilities of SEM for whole artifact analysis, nano-technology, paleontology, and other areas will make ISU scientifically competitive. The built in EDS and WDS analysis systems, with the addition of Cathodolumenescence (CL), will allow us to conduct imaging of structural variation and quantitative elemental analysis, as well as micro-structural morphological studies of geological and archaeological materials using EDS/WDS and backscattered electron imaging (BSE). CL imaging and analysis functionality provides the much-needed ability to map chemical and phase zonation critical for constructing geological mineral histories and for compositional sourcing of mineral tempers in archaeological ceramics. The imaging capabilities of the SEM will be used for taxonomic identification of biological microfossils such as pollens, phytoliths, diatoms and bryozoans, will be central to the work of the paleontologists, geobiologists and archaeologists contributing to the project, and will open up new fields of chemical research and analysis.
