Through this project, an energy dispersive x-ray (EDX) microanalytical system is added to the Biology Department's existing scanning electron microscope (SEM) system. This enables students performing undergraduate research at all levels of the curriculum in Chemistry and Physics to become much more involved in the growth and characterization of materials using techniques often developed for the rapidly emerging field of Material Science. Because of the relative ease of use of new SEM and SEM/EDX systems, our students can perform spatially resolved elemental analysis on films and bulk materials they prepare as part of our extensive laboratory research programs. Students correlate these measurements with the wide variety of other types of electronic and optical measurement already being made. High- resolution SEM and SEM/EDX maps are made available to students photographically as well as remotely over the campus ethernet. This project promotes interdisciplinary scientific research by undergraduates and helps augment an expensive instrument (SEM) so that its acquisition and maintenance costs can be amortized responsibly over a broader base of users.
